Fire Child
by LadyPrin
Summary: The evil darkness of Empress Debonair spreads throughout the Kingdom of Cephiro. Only the one who was born during a fire can stop her. Princess Emeraude and her Kingdom place their hopes on one baby's shoulders, Hikaru the Fire Child of Prophecy.
1. Chapter 1

Fire Child By LadyPrin

Disclaimer Applies.

Author's Note: There have been three different official versions of Magic Knight Rayearth: the Manga, the two seasons of Anime, and the Rayearth OVA (Original Video Animation). I know that the OVA has a bit of a darker tone in the colors they used, and the feeling that the darker colors bring is the kind of feeling I would like for this story. So, you may notice that the Magic Knight's hair colors are a bit different. These are intentional. They will be the color that they are in the OVA, Umi's will be dark blue, Fuu's will be dark brown, and Hikaru's will be, as best as I can describe it, dark magenta. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy the story!

Chapter One

The baby was born amidst chaos as fire overtook the house.

Outside the tiny room into which her mother was bringing her, the household servants and family members ran around, shouting orders or just screaming fearfully.

The only ones who were calm amidst this terror was the baby's mother who lay upon the bed, sweating profusely, and the midwife who stood ready to catch the baby as it came.

Though outwardly calm, these two were terrified. As the contractions became more intense and the head of the baby started to appear, there was no hope of the mother moving from her bed, much less escaping the fire that now burned so closely by the hallway door. No hope to flee until this baby was born, but by then they feared it would be too late for any of them.

"Its head is out! Push! I can see its shoulders!" The midwife encouraged the mother as she quickly wiped sweat from her own forehead.

The mother cried out in pain as she pushed again, bringing the baby halfway out.

The midwife continued her words of encouragement and her commands to push, glancing fearfully every few seconds at the closed door that was only feet behind her.

Both of the women could feel the heat, they could hear the roar of the fire outside which drowned out any screams and yells if any there was left, and they could see the fire starting to burn through the door.

The baby slid all the way out and the mother collapsed onto the bed, breathing heavily.

The midwife cut the umbilical cord, and quickly wrapped the baby in a white blanket that was laying on the side the bed, though why she continued to do this when they would all be dead in just a few minutes anyway she didn't know.

She coughed from the smoke that now slowly filled the room, as she carried the baby around the bed and placed her in her mother's waiting arms.

The mother looked down at the newborn baby with a loving sad expression.

With the light of the fire that burned outside the windows she could see that her precious baby had little wet curls of dark magenta hair.

She was worried at first that the baby might be stillborn because she wasn't crying like most newborns did, but she was happy to see her little chest move up and down with breath, though her eyes remained closed.

Both women started to cough madly as the door finally collapsed all the way and thick black smoke filled the room.

The midwife huddled on the bed next to the new mother, and held her arms around the new mother's shoulders.

The new mother held close her dear baby to her chest, and shook her head fiercely as if in defiance of the great element that was about to claim all their lives.

"Stay calm my little Hikaru." The mother whispered her first and last words to her baby daughter as the bottom of the bed caught fire. "Stay calm, stay brave, and I shall hold you again soon!"

Little Hikaru's eyes remained closed, but she heard those words being whispered to her.

She couldn't really understand the words yet, and she couldn't understand why everything smelled so bad, she couldn't understand why everyone around her was screaming.

When she finally did open her eyes that night, all she saw was the bright flames around her.

She smiled and laughed, for to her the fire was whispering greetings to her, welcoming her to this new world. It was dancing around her, its happiness blazing bright, and it embraced her with its soft, warm, gentle flames.

That fire was soon to be called the Great Fire, for it burned through nearly half the Kingdom, destroying many villages, woodlands, meadows, and taking many lives.

Little Hikaru would soon be called the Fire Child, for the Great Fire didn't take her life, but made it special instead.


	2. Chapter 2

_Fire Child By LadyPrin_

_Disclaimer Applies. _

_Thanks to Shinomu for reviewing and for those who put me in their favs and alerts! I hope you continue to read and enjoy! _

_Chapter Two_

_Three men stood waiting patiently in the courtyard of a palace. _

_The courtyard was in the shape of a large circle, with a large fountain in the middle, flowers planted around the sides, and a stone path that entered the room, circled the fountain and left through another archway. _

_Though the courtyard was very beautiful, it gave off the feeling of tiredness, and sadness.  
_

_The splashing of the water that fell from the top of the fountain into the basin below made an eerie sound in the silence, especially since no birds sang today. _

_The sky was cloudy and gray. It felt like it would rain any second, but it'd been like that for four days now and still no rain fell forth. _

_One man stood leaning against a tree beside the path, his eyes closed. The long bangs of his short gray hair blew around his face in the cold breeze._

_One of the other two stood in the middle of the path staring at the fountain. He had short hair too, but like the other he also had long bangs, though the color was light brown. His bangs completely covered his eyes so neither of the other two could tell if he was awake or had fallen asleep standing up. _

_The other one sat on the thick edge of the fountain, his deep green hair blew around his face too, though it was short and held back in a short tail at the base of his neck. _

_His green eyes glanced at the gray haired one every now and then, but always returned to the floor._

_The green haired man's head quickly jerked up when he heard the sound of soft footsteps coming toward them down the path. _

_The gray haired man opened his eyes and stood up straight. _

The brown haired man turned around, and they all watched as the short young girl came to stand before them. 

_Her golden hair was as long as she was and somewhat longer. It billowed around her like her flowing white dress billowed. Around her forehead she wore a chain of jewels, with a large green jewel at its center. Her blue eyes were sad, yet at the same time, hopeful. _

_All three men smiled at her before bowing low to her. _

_"Princess Emeraude." They all three muttered in greeting. _

"_Rise." She commanded in a soft gentle tone, sounding more like a plea than a command. _

_They rose to their feet, and then noticed she carried something in her arms that was wrapped in a white blanket. _

_They looked at it questioningly, but waited for Emeraude to say something first. _

"_As you already know, two weeks ago the Great Fire spread through nearly half of our Kingdom." She began in that soft voice of hers. "It destroyed a great many villages, and killed many, but in the midst of all the suffering something good has risen." _

_She unwrapped the upper part of the bundle to show the peaceful face of a sleeping baby, with short dark magenta hair framing her face. _

"_This little one was born almost directly in the middle of the Great Fire." She continued. "Yet it didn't harm her at all. She was found four days ago, when the Great Fire finally burnt out, and was brought to me."_

"_She wasn't harmed at all?" The greened haired one asked, surprise evident on all their faces. _

"_Not at all." Emeraude confirmed. "Which means she is the one. The one we've all been waiting for. As the evil of Empress Debonair spreads throughout our Kingdom of Cephiro, only the Fire Child will be able to stop her so the prophecy says. The prophecy also says that she cannot do this alone, and so we must take immediate action if we are to save our Kingdom."_

_Princess Emeraude walked forward three steps and laid the sleeping child in the green haired man's arms. _

_He took her gently, sure that if he dropped her she would break like a porcelain doll. _

_Princess Emeraude stepped back and addressed them all._

"_Ascot," She nodded her head to the brown haired man. "Eagle," The gray haired man. "Little brother Prince Ferio," The green haired man. "I must entrust this child into your care. Guarding her by whatever means possible, you must take her across this country to Priest Zagato's temple. There he will watch over her and teach her whatever she needs to ensure that she is prepared for the battle ahead. Master Mage Clef has seen to it that all you need for the journey is gathered, and it is waiting for you by the front gate. Go with my blessing and prayers, and be safe." _

"_Yes, Princess." They all three responded, bowing to her once more. _

_They turned and walked quickly down the path and out of the archway they had come through before. _

_Princess Emeraude stood still for a few more minutes watching that doorway. Her deep blue eyes then turned to the sky, and studied the dark clouds above her. _

_She raised her hands up, folded them together in front of her chest, and prayed. _

"_Please Cephiro, help to protect this child, this one last hope for you. Protect her so that she can do what I can't. Let her live to fight and win against, what I shall soon fight and loose to." _

_Tears started sliding down her cheeks, as three black horses raced swiftly out of the front gates of the palace and into the coming darkness of night._


	3. Chapter 3

_Fire Child by LadyPrin_

_Disclaimer Applies._

_Thanks to DeadGirl'sPoem337 for reviewing! And to all those who added me to thier alert/favorites lists! _

_Chapter Three_

_He sat on the edge of a large pool that was built into the floor of the large room. _

_  
His brow creased with concentration as he raised his hand above the water's surface, and his eyes narrowed as he sent a silent mental command. _

_The liquid shot up out of the pool, and he raised his hand toward the vaulted ceiling. It raced up toward the sky, but before it had reached the high ceiling, he let his hand fall, cutting off the magic that gave the water life. Without it, the water fell back into the pool, making a giant wave, but the man had already gotten up and was striding elegantly and slowly across the room. _

_  
The excess water that had spilt over the edge reached for the hem of his cape and the end of his long black hair, but without even looking at it, the man put up a barrier between himself and the water. _

_He was almost out the door, when something made him pause. _

_  
He heard a slight ringing sound, like bells or chimes dancing in the wind. _

_He turned back to the pool and saw an image rise up out of it. It was transparent, but the man recognized the short young man with the lavender hair immediately._

_He turned around and quickly walked back to the edge of the pool, the excess water parted for him as his barrier was still in place. _

_  
"Lord Zagato." The transparent man spoke. _

"_Master Mage Clef." Lord Zagato replied, kneeling in front of the pool. _

"_I must be quick with this transmission. I'm calling through one of Autozam's computer systems as magic would be detected by Empress Debonair." Clef spoke quickly, but clearly, and Lord Zagato listened intently. "The Fire Child of the Prophecy has been born, and found. Princess Emeraude is giving her to Prince Ferio, Ascot and Eagle as we speak, and sending them to you. I shall look after them from the Palace as best I can, but my attention is somewhat strained as it is. Princess Emeraude is preparing to confront Empress Debonair, and I must be at her side when she does. The Fire Child shall be there soon. You know what shall be asked of you?" _

"_I know, and I'm willing." Lord Zagato replied, though inside he felt hesitant. _

Clef smiled tiredly at his old pupil. 

"_I and the Princess have faith in you. We know you won't let us down." _

_  
With that the transmission ended. _

_Zagato stood up, deep in thought, but was interrupted when he heard the sound of sizzling water and he felt steam on hid back. _

_He turned around sharply, still kneeling, a blue ball of crackling lightening in his hand ready to throw at an assailant, but he froze. How can one not freeze in fear when they see a wolf the size of himself standing straight and proud in the doorway, and made completely of fire? _

_Crimson red, orange, and yellow flames burned brightly, turning the water around it to steam. Red eyes glowed out at him, and the only solid looking thing to him was the glinting gold horn on his forehead. _

"_Greetings, Priest Zagato." The wolf spoke in a deep male voice, though no visible mouth moved. It was more mental than vocal. "I see you recognize me." _

_For Zagato did indeed recognize him, though he had never seen him before. This majestic powerful creature that stood before him, was one of the three great Elemental Mashin, or Rune Spirits of the Elements. It was said that though they kept to themselves and was rarely ever seen, they protected Cephiro whenever great danger threatened. Though rumors had been spreading lately that such a thing might be false as great danger threatened Cephiro now and the Mashin had yet to show themselves. _

_Zagato now knew the rumors were the false things. _

"_Lord Fire Mashin, to what do I owe the honor of your visit?" He murmured softly, quickly extinguishing the lightening from his hand. _

"_You have just learned that the Fire Child has been born, yes?" The wolf asked politely, though Zagato felt that he already knew the answer. _

"Yes, I have just been informed." He replied. 

"_Good. I have come to wait here for her." The wolf continued. _

_  
Zagato wondered silently if it was all right to ask him why he was going to wait for the Fire Child, but decided he did not want to risk making him angry. _

The wolf seemed to sense the question on his mind. 

"_My two companions and I have long known the darkness that spreads throughout our lands, but we have also known that we alone are not powerful enough to stop it. We also know more about the prophecy than humans do, and therefore know that not just the Fire Child, but also two others, when joined with our powers will be powerful enough. My two companions are now searching for the other two as we speak. I myself know that the Fire Child is being brought here, so here I decide to await her." The wolf explained. "She has the power of Fire dwelling inside her, and so to quicken her pace I have set up a beacon of fire on top of this mountain. It silently calls to her, and when she hears it, she will know exactly where to go even should her traveling companions and protectors fall."_

_Zagato nodded in awed understanding and stood up slowly. _

"_I welcome you to my home, and am honored by your presence." Zagato finally spoke. "May I ask what name am I to call you by, in our time together?" _

"_My true name is known only to a few, so you may only know me as Ra." The wolf replied. "And I know that most if not everyone calls you with the title Lord. I will only call you Priest, for I will only call one Lord. For the most part, I will leave you be. You won't even realize I'm here, but if you ever need me, call me." _

_Then the great Fire Mashin stepped from the room, and his massive fiery tail swished out of sight, and he was gone. _

_Lord Zagato stood still for a moment, too amazed to do much of anything. Not even Master Mage Clef had seen a Rune Spirit of the Elements before. _

_Then with a small smile he decided that it was time to clean up the water that now chilled his feet through his boots._


	4. Chapter 4

_Fire Child By LadyPrin_

_Disclaimer Applies._

_Thanks to DeadGirl'sPoem337, Shinomu (I sure hope your favorite character makes an appearence soon! A new one will enter in the next chapter, maybe that one's your fav?), and Fenris (I'm playing this little game with myself that I started for no particular reason. I'm making myself write each chapter as within 3 pages long, by my word document program. Of course when I add the 'Thanks to' part some becomes 4 pages, but it's how I unconciously started it. I may or may not break from the pattern, we'll see. -). _

_Oh, and MizzChocolate, are you going to bounce around from one story/poem of mine to another of mine just to write flaming reviews with bad language in them? If so from now on know you're going to be ignored. I can't delete you from my story reviews, but I can ignore you. Oh, you probably already know you need to clean up your language, but hey, I'll consider myself ignored. -_

_Chapter Four_

"_Whose turn is it to change the baby this time?" Eagle quietly asked to the group with a growing smirk. _

_Ferio was gathering up the dishes from that night's meal, but he paused long enough to grin at Ascot who was sitting by the campfire trying to sew up something. _

_  
"I do believe it's Ascot's turn." Ferio announced, and Ascot's head jerked up. "I did it last time, and besides I'm busy!" _

_Ascot grumbled quietly as he sat the fabric down on the ground beside him and got up. _

_Ferio laughed quietly as he left the campsite to wash the dishes in the nearby stream beyond the trees._

"_Don't be too upset Ascot." Eagle told him as he handed the baby over to him with a smile. "I'm sure our little Hikaru appreciates it." _

_They had found out her name was Hikaru when they had gone through their bags the first time looking for something to feed her. It was on the sheet of parchment detailing their instructions on how to feed her, bath her, change her diaper and anything else the writer thought might come up. _

_Ascot had found a few yards of fabric in one of the bags, and since he was the one of the three who knew how to sew and sew good he had started work on making a couple new outfits for Hikaru so she wouldn't have to wear the same thing for the whole journey. _

_They'd left the palace three days ago, but though the horses were fast they had not yet made it to the halfway point. So it would be at least four more days before the end of the journey, and that's if their luck held out. _

"_The things I do for my Kingdom." Ascot muttered as he set to work. _

_Hikaru smiled up at him and made little happy gurgling sounds. Ascot soon couldn't help the affectionate smile that spread across his face. Hikaru seemed to have that effect on all of them, and they couldn't help but be happy when Hikaru was happy, which seemed to be always. She brightened up the journey even if she was only a baby. _

_Her crimson eyes were bright and alert when Ascot finished, and wrapped her up in a dark red blanket to keep her warm. _

_Ferio was back and was standing by the horses, packing the dishes away in a bag._

_Ascot gave Hikaru over to Eagle and was about to sit back down when Hikaru did something that she hadn't done the entire journey. _

_She started to fuss and she had a frown on her angelic features. _

"_She's upset over something." Eagle stated worriedly, as he tried to calm her down with quiet shushes. _

_Hikaru's eyes were wondering all over the place, and then they finally settled on a patch of trees across from Eagle. She tried to snuggle closer to Eagle, away from the trees._

_By now all three men were alerted. _

_Ferio grabbed his huge sword that was leaning against one of the trees that a horse was tied to. Eagle stood up and while cradling Hikaru in one arm, pulled from his hip strap a laser gun. Ascot quickly piled the cloth all together in one bundle by the fire pit and readied his left hand, for the jewel on his glove was his weapon. _

_After a moment of silent tension spent staring at the trees, Hikaru gave one short sharp wail that startled them all, and then the source of her fear appeared. _

_It was a monster that resembled a giant crab, all black, and had one burning eye on its forehead. _

_Ferio was the first to lung at it and with one swipe of his giant sword he cleaved the monster in half, killing it instantly. _

_He grinned triumphantly, but was stunned to see five more coming swiftly out of the forest, taking the fallen one's place. They all could see the burning eyes of more in the further darkness of the trees. _

_With a quick glance at each other they communicated the message that they had to go to plan B. _

_With a quick nod, Eagle turned and ran into the forest in the opposite direction of the crab like creatures. As he ran he heard Ascot cry out the words needed to call his friends and fighting companions. _

"_Spirit Beasts, I Summon Thee!" _

_Eagle kept running, thanking Cephiro that Hikaru remained silent. _

_After a few minutes Eagle had to stop to breath, and it was then he heard something running right behind him. _

_  
He turned sharply, his gun aimed straight for whatever was after him, but he hesitated. Good thing too, as it was Ascot who burst forth sitting in the hand of one of his many friends. A nice beast that looked more like a wingless humanoid bird than anything. _

_Eagle quickly holstered his gun, and was quickly swiped up by the other hand of the beast. _

_It took off running again through the trees, incredibly silent for its size. _

_The plan was simple. _

_If confronted in a battle with multiple assailants with an emanate 'fight until you're exhausted than get killed' outcome, whichever one held Hikaru would run off into the woods with her, away from the battle. The other two would fight together for a while. If no sign of an end were near, one of them would break off from the battle and rush to join the other and Hikaru. That way, one could distract the enemy while the others got away, and there would still be at least two protectors for the Fire Child. _

_Though the others felt terrible about it, Ferio was the one to stay behind this time. They took comfort in knowing that he could handle himself in battle better than most soldiers, and probably stood the best chance of winning a seemingly unwinable battle. _

_They ran swiftly through the trees, and soon the sounds of Ferio and the battle were no longer hearable to them._


	5. Chapter 5

Fire Child by LadyPrin

Disclaimer Applies.

Thanks to Shinomu for reviewing!

Chapter Five

She had been separating herbs on her kitchen counter, readying them to be made into healing mixes and pastes, but she had dropped what herbs she had held and let them fall to the counter when she had heard the sounds.

She had heard the sounds of battle coming from not very far away into the forest around her house. She had heard the cries of many enraged beasts and the cries of a man in pain and rage.

She had quickly slipped her feet into her slippers, and grabbed her bow and arrows that were leaning against the frame of the door, and had run out of the house. She now ran down the path that would lead her nearest to the sounds.

She didn't know if she would be of much help when she got there. She was good with a bow and arrow, but there sounded like so many beasts . . .

Abruptly the forest fell silent, and she paused in her run to listen. The wind blew silent, but it carried a small scent of blood, rusty and salty.

She resumed her pace, and headed in the direction the sounds had been coming from.

She soon came upon the battleground.

She stopped at the edge of the trees, and looked around silently. She was the main healer of the village, and was used to seeing blood, but never in this amount. It was hard not to vomit as she saw the blood that seeped into the grass, and spread across it like molasses. Most of the blood seemed to be coming from horrible looking crablike monsters that lay scattered around. Some were split open; some were in pieces, some just missing huge chunks of themselves.

Though she looked hard, she could not see a single human body. She did see tracks in the blood, that looked like there had been more crablike creatures who had just run over their fallen comrades with disregard to them and it seemed they headed for the other side of the forest.

That was a good thing to this girl, for it meant they were going away from her village. She did not want to see this sight in her own home.

She skirted around the clearing, and soon caught sight of three ropes hanging from three trees.

One of the ropes hung limply, having been cut, possibly by a sword. The animal or person bound by it seemed to have ran off already. The other two were still connected to their charges, and the girl gasped as she saw two large horses lying dead on the ground. They had huge holes in their sides, like the legs of the crablike creatures had been thrust through them.

The sight sickened her and she quickly turned away, there was nothing she could do for the dead.

That's when she caught sight of him, lying spread eagle on the ground, drenched with blood, and unmoving.

She quickly made her way to him, slipping a bit on the blood stained grass, and falling once, only to get back up.

When she got to his side, she was just as bloody as he was.

His face was a ghostly white; his short green hair was a sticky mess, his clothes were ripped in many places, and his visible wounds were a slash across the bridge of his nose, and two cuts on his left cheek in the shape of an X.

She quickly felt for a pulse but was almost brought to tears when she couldn't feel any. Then she perked up when she finally felt it. It was very slow and very weak, but he was still alive.

She could still help him!

She quickly looked him over, and found a large wound in his side, probably the most lethal wound he had. She knew he had lost too much blood already and she had to move quickly.

It took much effort, but she soon had him up with an arm over her shoulders. She was careful this time to walk across the blood, as she didn't want to fall, for she feared she might not be able to get him back in this position again.

Once she was off the blood and had wiped her feet off as best she could, she quickened her pace. His head lolled back and forth as he remained unconscious throughout the entire trek home.

Once she had him in the house she quickly laid him on her bed, and took his ruined shirt off to get a better look at his wound.

It was far too deep. Under normal healing measures he would never last through the next hour. She was so thankful that she had an unusual healing power at her disposal.

She stepped back from the bed, and held her hands toward the unconscious, dying man.

"Winds of healing, I call to thee, help heal this man, heal him for me." She softly chanted.

Wind rushed in through the open windows and with the speed at which it moved it looked slightly green, a dark green like her eyes.

It blew over to the bed, rustling the crimson stained sheets, and the torn pants that he still wore. It surrounded him and lifted him gently off of the bed. His head fell back, as the wind softly touched his wounds.

After a moment, the streams of wind laid him back down and then blew out the windows.

Before it had gone completely, Ferio did open his eyes. He opened them only as slits, but he saw the young girl with half closed dark green eyes standing before him with her hands raised. Her short dark brown slightly curling hair was being tossed about as the wind blew past her and out of the open windows.

Then he fell unconscious again, his eyes closed, and someone opened the door behind the girl.

"Fuu, what's going on?" The new young girl asked, with a worried expression and tone.

"Kuu, I—" Was Fuu's only reply as she fell to the ground, unconscious as well, exhausted from her efforts, but satisfied with the results.


	6. Chapter 6

Fire Child by LadyPrin

Disclaimer Applies.

Thanks to Kana090 and DeadGirl'sPoem337! Umi will appear in the next chapter, and yes, Hikaru's still a baby. I'm glad you two brought up the subject of the age of the Magic Knights! There's something special about Hikaru in that department, and I soon will show what it is!

I'm sorry for not posting a chapter sooner! I had to switch all my files to another computer and I haven't had much time on that computer. Just now got the time to write this chapter!

Oh, and in case I don't post another chapter before then, MERRY CHRISTMAS YA'LL!!!

Chapter Six

When Ferio opened his eyes he was still lying in the same bed, and in the same room as before.

He raised his head slowly, but when nothing hurt, he continued to sit up. His side ached a little when he sat up fully, but when he looked down, his wound was nothing but a small scratch.

The cuts on his face were nothing but scars.

He sat on the edge of the bed, with his legs hanging over the side and an elbow on his knee, thinking back to what he saw when he had last opened his eyes.

A young girl with her hands raised, wind blowing around her, a peaceful look of concentration on her face.

'The wind must have been full of magic.' Ferio thought looking around the room. 'She must have commanded healing winds, and she must have been powerful if she could heal as deep a wound as I believe I had."

With a sigh Ferio raised himself from the bed, and looked around for his shirt.

It was on the floor beside the bed, in ruins. It was of no use to him anymore.

He also looked for his sword, but didn't see it in the room.

'Well, the sword is heavy for most. If she had tried to bring it, I doubt she could lift it.' Ferio thought to himself as he headed for the door that led out of the room.

"Lady Alcione!" He heard a young girl's frightened voice cry out from beyond the door, and the sound of a dish breaking against the ground.

He quickly opened the door.

Standing just infront of the door that led to the outside was a tall woman. She was dressed in long blood red robes, and had a bright red jewel on her forehead. Her long black hair billowed around her as she crossed quickly over to Kuu who stood frozen by the counter, the shards of the plate at her feet.

"Kuu, I know magic was done here, and I know it was your sister." Alcione's voice was hard, yet soft, and dangerous. Ferio could see Kuu shiver ever so slightly. "You know magic is forbidden here, and the Empress Debonair stands for no exceptions."

As Alcione beared down on her, Kuu's eyes flitted ever so slightly over to glance at the door to a room beside Ferio's.

Lady Alcione didn't miss that small movement, but as she turned to start toward that door, she spotted Ferio.

"Who--?" She started to ask and then stopped. Recognation came over her features as she remembered him from her old days as a student of Cleff's.

"Prince Ferio." She whispered, not as a question, but in a simple statement.

Kuu managed to hold back the gasp of surprise when she heard the title of 'Prince'.

"Alcione." Ferio acknowledged softly.

"Kuu, what's going on? I heard a crash. . ." Fuu's tired voice started to say, as she opened the door to her room and looked out.

She paused in fear as she saw Alcione, and took a deep breath.

Alcione glanced at Fuu for only a moment, and then her attention reverted back to Ferio.

"If I may be so bold to ask, what brings you here Prince Ferio?" Alcione asked, staring Ferio in the eyes, daring him to look away.

Fuu gasped as she heard the word 'Prince'.

"I'm on a mission for my sister with three other companions, but we were attacked out in the woods surrounding here. The others excaped, but I was wounded. One of these young ladies found me and took care of me." Ferio explained, leaving out the details.

"Hmm." Alcione murmured to herself, thinking.

Then her eyes went wide with realization.

"The Fire Child?" Alcione asked in so soft a tone that Ferio could barely hear her.

Ferio did not answer in words, he just raised one eyebrow to her.

A slight smile lifted the right corner of Alcione's mouth, before it was gone and she raised her right hand.

The red jewel on her glove started to glow.

Kuu and Fuu stared at each other. They knew what that light meant. Everytime Alcione had discovered someone in the village had used or was using magic, she would use the magic within the glove to make the user dissapear into oblivion.

As light shot forth from the jewel straight at Ferio who raised both eyebrows now, Fuu stumbled to stand infront of Ferio, trying her best to protect him.

"Lady--!" Ferio started to say, then the light envoloped them both, and the last thing Fuu heard before they dissapeared was Kuu screaming her name.

Then they were gone from the kitchen.

Alcione lowered her glove and walked over to stand infront of the sobbing Kuu.

"NO!" Kuu cried, launching herself at Alcione and beating her hands against Alcione's chest. "Bring her back! Bring her back!"

Alcione's cold hand gripped one of Kuu's and Kuu quit fighting.

She stood there, tears streaming from her closed eyes, kept standing only by the wrist that Alcione held.

"Listen child, your sister is not in pain, and so you shall not be either." Alcione muttered softly. "For now, forget that you ever had a sister. Remember only if you see her again."

Alcione quickly let go of Kuu's wrist as Kuu opened her eyes and glared at her in anger.

Alcione touched Kuu's forehead with the jewel on her glove, and Kuu's face went blank in a flash.

"You better pick up those shards before you hurt yourself, dear." Alcione told her softly as she turned and walked toward the door.

"Yes, Lady Alcione." Kuu answered mechanically, kneeling slowly to start picking up the shards.

Alcione smiled as she dissapeared from the house herself.

Fuu grunted as she hit the ground, then gasped as she realized what the ground was covered in.

"Well, it seems we're back at the battle site." Ferio stated as he steped up to her and offered her his hand.

Fuu took it hesitantly, and he helped her to her feet.

"What happened?" She asked, wondering why they were still alive.

"Well, it seems Lady Alcione transported us back to the battlefield instead of killing us." Ferio explained, looking around for his sword.

"Why would she do that?" Fuu asked, questioningly. "Everyother time we've seen her point that jewel at someone they've always been obliviated."

"Maybe that's just her cover story." Ferio theorerized, as he took a battled stance, pretending like he had his sword in hand.

He went through slow fighting movements, as he explained somemore.

"Years ago, when it became apparent that Empress Debonair was invading, we sent Lady Alcione undercover. To see what Debonair was up to, and to avoid as much loss of lives as she could without being caught herself."

He swung his arms in a circle twice and then opened his hands like as if he had just lost his sword.

He looked in that direction and then started walking that way.

"Back in your kitchen, I was a little afraid that Alcione had actually crossed sides, but the fact that we're still alive has proven different."

He look up at the tree infront of him, and grinned at her.

"Be right back, I have to retrieve my sword." He explained, then he started climbing the tree in jumps.

Fuu watched him in awe and when she finally saw the sword she gulped in surprise.

Ferio lunged at the sword, grabbed the handle, pulled it from the tree and landed on the ground. He clenched his teeth together as his side ached, reminding him that he wasn't yet finished healing.

The pain passed quickly and he leaned the huge sword that was as tall as he was, and much wider, over his left shoulder as he walked back to Fuu.

"That's your sword?" Fuu asked.

"Yup!" Ferio answered, but before he could continue someone elses voice joined the conversation.

"You still fight with that thing Ferio? I would've thought you'd choose something a bit more your size by now." Alcione stated calmly, as she appeared out of the trees around them.

"I wouldn't give this sword up unless lives depended upon it." Ferio stated firmly. "Or unless it broke, but it will never do that." He added smugly.

"We'll see." Alcione stated with a playful tone as she came to stand before them. "First of all, I'm sorry Fuu for scaring you, and your sister, but my cover must not be blown."

"Prince Ferio did say something about that." Fuu admitted.

"Rest assured, you're sister is safe, and unless she sees you again, will not remember this event." Alcione explained. "Now, Prince Ferio, how far away would you say the others have gotten by now?"

"Not very far." Ferio stated thoughtfully. "A couple miles, give or take."

"Three miles away there is another village, one that does not have a presence of Debonair." Alcione informed. "I shall teleport you to within a mile of that place, you should easily catch up to the others there."

"Thank you." Ferio replied.

Alcione raised her hand, but then Ferio raised his.

"What will happen to Fuu?" He asked worriedly.

"What happened to all the others I had to 'obliviate'." Alcione answered. "Transported to another village where they will take up new identities."

Ferio looked at Fuu for a moment, and then turned to her.

"Since you're going to a new town anyway, care to travel with me? You can stay at the village if you want?" He asked.

Fuu glanced back at her home where Kuu was still cleaning.

"I guess I would like to travel with you, but I'm not going anywhere without--" She was stopped halfway through her sentence by a loud peircing shriek of a bird.

A bird the size of a hawk, but with longer tail feathers and the plumage of green and white, flew out of the trees to land on Fuu's raised arm.

"Windom, there you are." Fuu muttered affectionately.

She turned to the others.

"I'm ready to go now." She stated firmly, resolve hardening her courage, for she knew she had nothing else to do.

Ferio smiled and took her left hand.

"Hope be with the Fire Child, and those who care for her." Alcione muttered to them, just before the light of her jewel transported them away for a second time.


	7. Chapter 7

Fire Child

By LadyPrin

Disclaimer Applies.

Thanks to ShadowSaver and Nightling-of-Firehaven for reviewing!!!

Sorry I've taken so long in updating! I've been EXTREMELY busy, but to make it up to you, here is a chapter far larger than those I've posted before! On my word document it's a full 10 pages long!

Now, I have to go and write up a new chapter for Tear Pearls . . .

Oh, and if you can stick around for another two chapters or so, I'm planning on introducing a certain, tall, dark, mysterious man on a dark horse, with a certain little blue haired girl with wings! Personally, he's one of my favorite characters, the fairy, ahem, pixie, not so much . . .

Chapter Seven

"ACHOO!" Ascot sneezed loudly, clutching Hikaru firmly to his chest to make sure he didn't drop her.

"We should really get out of this rain before Hikaru or I catch a cold." Eagle commented as they rustled their way past more bushes and trees.

"You two? What about me?" Ascot asked in a voice that sounded like his nose was clogged.

"I think you already have, which is why I didn't mention you." Eagle explained with a smirk.

Ascot sniffed and glared at Eagle.

Then he stopped walking and sniffed again.

"I smell something . . ." He started to say.

"Smoke scented with food." Eagle finished, having sniffed the air himself.

"Great! Let's find this place and get out of the rain!" Ascot replied happily, shifting Hikaru to where she was mostly sheltered from the rain by his shoulders.

"But we can't buy food, any money we may have had were left with the horses." Eagle explained; following Ascot as he quickly walked in what he thought was the direction of the scent.

"I know, but right now all I want is to get out of the rain. Then we'll decide on how to pay for food." Ascot replied.

"Okay then." Eagle agreed, before grabbing Ascot by the back of his collar and bringing him to a stop. "But your nose is leading you wrong. It's this way."

After a few minutes more of walking they finally cleared the trees, and the back of a large building was revealed to them.

They stayed by the trees, as they looked the building over.

"It looks like an Inn." Eagle commented.

The building was made of bricks that were colored in various shades of red. It was four stories tall, with a hint of an attic at the top. Lights were on and voices could be heard through the walls. Billowing out of the chimney was the smoke that they had smelled earlier, and in fact, still smelled.

Hikaru tilted her head just a little to the side as she too stared at the Inn.

"Do we dare go in?" Eagle asked Ascot, glancing down at Hikaru. "We don't know if this village is within the darkness or not."

"The rain is coming down harder than before. We have to get Hikaru inside. After all, being a 'Fire' child, who knows how much damage rain might do to her." Ascot stated worriedly.

He sniffed again.

"And it seems to be time for a changing." He commented, wrinkling his half clogged nose.

"Okay, go in, but cautiously." Eagle warned. "I'll scout the village out and see what we're dealing with. If anything goes wrong, take Hikaru and follow the assigned path."

"Right." Ascot agreed.

Eagle quickly slipped back into the shadows of the trees and started skirting the village, but before he was out of earshot of Ascot, he sneezed.

Ascot smirked for a brief moment, and then returned to looking at the Inn.

He glanced down at Hikaru who lay silently in his arms. She was still staring at the Inn.

Her hair was starting to look like fire in the rays of the quickly setting sun, and her dark brown eyes were looking ruby red in the same light.

Just to be on the safe side, Ascot quietly summoned the giant bird humanoid beast back from out of his jewel glove.

"I'm sorry to have to leave you outside in the rain my friend, but we need someone to watch our backs for us, since Ferio is not here." Ascot explained to the beast, petting him gently on the beak. "Please keep a look out among these trees, and let me know if anything evil comes."

The beast nodded underneath Ascot's hand and rubbed his feathery head once against Ascot's head, and then turned and wondered silently off into the trees.

Ascot turned, and feeling slightly more at ease now, started walking toward the Inn.

He was planning on going around and entering the front way, like all customers would, but he stopped in his tracks when the back door to the building opened abruptly.

He stood frozen, holding Hikaru tightly to his chest, covered entirely by the somewhat wet red blanket that had somehow managed to stay with her.

He silently watched as the young woman with long dark blue hair walked out of the door, and over to a big wooden box to her left.

She was dressed in a waterproof dark gray cloak, with the hood down.

In her arms she carried a large woven basket and it was from this basket that she emptied potato peelings, fruit peelings, and other various things including scrapes of leftovers into the big wooden box.

She was humming softly to herself as she glanced toward the sky every few seconds.

It seemed she enjoyed the rain on her face.

Once the basket was emptied, she balanced it lightly on her hip, and turned to go back inside.

It was then she saw Ascot.

She was surprised, it was clear from her face, but she did not scream as Ascot expected.

Instead, after a few minutes of looking at him, she smiled.

Ascot blushed lightly, and tried to find something to say.

"Welcome to the Water Dragon Inn, stranger." The girl greeted him, as she wiped her wet blue bangs from her eyes. "It's been a while since we've seen a Palu in these parts. Please come in."

She motioned to the door that she now stood beside.

Ascot hesitated, but only for a moment. Hikaru had started to squirm in his arms.

Ascot let the girl go in first, and then followed, shutting the door quietly behind him.

He had followed the girl into what seemed to be the kitchen part of the Inn.

It was warm and comfortably lighted.

Ascot saw many cooks and assistants bustling about and the smell of all kinds of delicious foods made his stomach rumble softly.

Ascot looked around for the blue haired girl.

She was toweling off her hair by the right side of the door. Once she had her hair mostly dry, she took her cloak off.

She was dressed in a long sleeved, light blue dress with a knee length skirt, and a white lacey apron. She wore a knee high white boot on each leg, and Ascot just now noticed the white hair band around her head.

"You must be really wet and cold, please this way." The girl gestured for him to follow her.

He did follow her as she led him over to a door on the far right.

Ascot could hear the voices of what he figured to be the customers, coming from the door on his far left, and they were louder than before, when he was outside.

Someone must be very drunk, because he or she starting to sing a song that was so slurred, Ascot thought that he'd misheard about half the words for it.

Once inside the room that the girl had opened the door to, the voices were immediately dimmed. They were shut off completely when she closed the door.

"Please, feel free to sit by the fireplace over there." The girl motioned to a large cushioned gold chair that was sitting over by a raging fireplace. "And don't worry about getting it wet, it'll dry quickly."

Ascot, who had opened his mouth to speak about that worry, closed his mouth and went to sit down.

"I'll be back in a moment!" The girl told him as she quickly left the room.

Ascot sniffed again, as he looked around the room.

It was a study of sorts.

The walls were painted a dark tree bark brown color. A large bookcase covered only one wall to the left of the fireplace. Another gold chair sat next to him, and the floor was covered with a dark green carpet.

There was only one window to this room, and it faced the back of the Inn. Rain beat down hard against the glass and obscured all of the trees.

Ascot looked down at Hikaru and realized that she was still covered by the blanket.

He pulled down the top edge to reveal her smiling face.

He sat on the edge of the seat, and held Hikaru out close to the fire so that she'd get the majority of warmth.

Hikaru held her little arm out toward the fire, and waved at it in a way that seemed to Ascot as if she beckoned the fire to her.

The fire seemed to lean out toward her, and Ascot wasn't sure if he should pull her back or keep her still.

Just as it seemed the fire was about to touch the outermost tips of Hikaru's tiny little fingers, the door across the room opened.

Ascot jumped and pulled Hikaru back from the fire.

She fussed slightly as he held her to his chest and looked at the door.

"I thought it was a baby you held." The blue haired girl stated calmly as she walked over to the other chair.

She started unloading the stuff she carried onto the seat.

"And from the smell of things something needs changed." She stated with a smile.

Ascot blushed, for he had forgotten about that.

"I brought stuff to change the baby with, along with some food for both of you." The girl explained, picking up a large honey colored bun with a delicious scent. "Here, you can start eating while I change the baby. I've had plenty of experience."

Ascot was hesitant for a moment, but Hikaru gurgled happily up at him.

With a small smile, Ascot handed her over to the girl, and took the bun from the girl's outstretched hand.

The girl gently placed Hikaru down on her back on the carpet, and commenced to change her under Ascot's watchful eyes.

"I realize that I haven't introduced myself yet." The girl said as she worked. "My name is Umi. Umi Ryuzaki. My parents own this Inn. What's your name?"

"My name is Ascot." Ascot quickly answered around the partially chewed bite of bun.

"Muscat?" Umi asked, for that is what she had heard. "Yummy name."

Ascot quickly swallowed.

"No! Ascot!" He quickly corrected.

"Oh, Ascot! Right!" Umi paused for a moment to stare at him. "Ascot . . . I've heard about you. You're quite famous actually, from what I've gathered from the traveler's talk."

Ascot blushed again.

"There! All finished!" Umi announced proudly, letting Hikaru roll over onto her stomach. "And who might this little one be named?"

"Her name is Hikaru." Ascot answered, smiling as Hikaru started to try and crawl for the first time.

"You have a beautiful daughter!" Umi complemented him, as she still knelt by Hikaru's side to keep her from crawling into the fireplace.

"She's not mine." Ascot corrected quickly, blushing yet again.

"Not . . . yours?" Umi asked slowly, staring at him.

Ascot only had a moment to wonder why Umi's face had paled so suddenly.

"Did you kidnap her?" Umi asked forcefully, her blue eyes glaring dangerously at him.

She looked ready to spring up and pounce on him at a second's notice.

"NO! That's not it!" Ascot replied hurriedly, holding up his hands, palms out, in an attempt to stop her from pouncing. "I didn't kidnap her! I—HIKARU, NO!"

Ascot lunged for Hikaru, Umi turned to look at Hikaru, and Hikaru, well . . .

She half crawled, half rolled into the fireplace.

The fire went up in a sudden blaze, which was so big it obscured Hikaru from view and was ejected with great force out of the fireplace that had contained it.

Ascot threw an arm around Umi and pushed her back, away from the fire as they both yelled out in fear.

Once Ascot had gotten his balance back, he tried to get closer to the fire, to find Hikaru, to get her out!

"HIKARU!" He kept crying out her name and tears started streaming from his eyes, and he winced in pain as the fire lapped at his skin a few times when he got too close.

Both he and Umi had expected to hear screams of pain coming from Hikaru as the fire burned her, but no sounds had come, and they both feared the worst.

Umi rushed over to the one window in the room, and threw it open with so much force that the shutters rebounded back and nearly smacked her in the head.

Umi turned to look at the fireplace, and there was a determined, dangerous look in her eyes.

"Water Typhoon!" Umi cried, raising her hands above her head, and bringing them back down to point at the fireplace.

All the rain that was falling seemed to rush forth from outside the window, and flew at the fireplace with such force that Ascot was knocked off his feet and thrown to the side.

One giant typhoon of raindrops smashed into the fireplace and put out the fire before it could do much more than sizzle.

Ascot couldn't see the fireplace because of the chair that now blocked his view, but he could see Umi.

He saw her collapse to her knees, looking exhausted.

He saw her look to the fireplace, with an expression of fear.

The fear quickly changed to shock.

Ascot used the chair for support as he hurriedly stood up.

Though he feared what he might see, he too forced himself to look toward the fireplace.

What he saw was not what he expected to see.

Hikaru was . . .


	8. Chapter 8

Fire Child

By LadyPrin

Disclaimer Applies.

Thanks to Pisces Pig, Archangel Rhapsody, Luster Purger (when I thought this story up, to tell you the truth I didn't really give Clef too big a part, though I do like him. Maybe I'll make hsi part grow.), and Kitt-Kat Allie for reviewing! And thanks to all those who put me on their alerts and favorites!!

I'm sorry it's been so long since I last updated! Writer's block mixed with being sick, pile it up on my 18th birthday, makes for a bit of a despressing mood.

Chapter Eight

Eagle entered the Inn with all his senses alert.

He had been through the village, but had not come across anything evil. As far as he could tell, this village was not yet within Empress Debonair's evil darkness.

The Inn was the only place he hadn't searched yet.

Eagle looked around and saw nothing that set alarm bells to ringing.

He did spot Ascot, sitting at a table in the far right corner of the room.

Ascot was staring across the room at a staircase that rose up to the second floor.

He was raising a glass to his mouth, but his hand was shaking.

Eagle didn't see Hikaru.

The alarm bells sounded in his head.

Eagle quickly rushed over to Ascot.

"Ascot! Where's Hikaru?" Eagle cried in just above a whisper.

It was hard for him to speak softly, when he wanted to shout.

Ascot jumped at the sound of his voice anyway, and nearly dumped the glass all over himself.

He quickly sat the glass down on the table before answering.

"Eagle! Is something wrong?" He asked quietly, but quickly.

"Not outside, but Ascot--!" Eagle suddenly noticed that Ascot's hands were bandaged up. "Ascot, why are your hands bandaged, and more importantly, where is Hikaru?"

Ascot stumbled over his hesitant reply, but finally got it all out.

"Hikaru, kind of had a, accident." Ascot said, shaking his hands a little.

"What accident?" Eagle urged, his eyes wide, his bangs dripping water onto his cheeks and nose.

"She, well, she . . ." Ascot tried to say.

"Out with it Ascot!" Eagle demanded.

"She kind of rolled into the fireplace!" Ascot finally got out.

"Rolled into the fireplace?" Eagle cried through clenched teeth.

Ascot couldn't get anything more out; he was so scared of Eagle's fury, which was rolling off him in waves. So instead, he pointed toward the staircase.

Eagle swiveled around and stared.

Coming down the staircase was a young teenage girl with long blue hair. She was holding a stack of washing towels and was laughing and smiling down at a young girl.

The girl looked to be of around six years of age, and was wearing a white nightgown that obviously had been too big for her. It had been neatly cut around her ankles to make a new hem, and the arms had been cut off at her elbows so she could use her hands.

Her cheeks were rosy and she was smiling as she bounced down the steps beside Umi. Her hair was pulled back into a braid that reached her waist.

Eagle knew in an instant that this little girl was Hikaru. Her dark magenta colored hair gave her away.

Eagle gapped at her.

"It seems that when fire engulfs her whole body, she ages by years." Ascot explained hastily. "She's now around six years old."

Just then Hikaru looked toward Ascot and saw Eagle standing there.

"Uncle Eagle!" She laughingly called out in greeting as she waved energetically.

She bounced down the rest of the stairs, ran across the room around the numerous round tables, and hugged the still gapping Eagle around the knees. She still was too small to reach his waist.

Eagle was at a loss for words.

"Ah, hi." Was all he could come up with for now.

He gently patted her head and the back of her shoulders, confirming that she was real and searching for more words.

She beamed up at him as Umi came to stand by the table.

"Here sir, you can dry off with this." Umi offered him a towel from her stack, which he thankfully accepted.

Then Umi turned to Ascot.

"She's a sweet little angel." Umi informed him with a smile. "Just don't let her near fire anytime soon, otherwise she'll be an old woman by dawn tomorrow. It seems fire draws her to it."

"Right." Ascot replied, staring at Hikaru. "Thank you! For, putting the fire out, and the, uh, nightdress for Hikaru."

"And the food! Don't forget the food!" Hikaru added, as Eagle proceeded to dry her off as she had soaked up some water from him when she had hugged him.

"And the lovely delicious free food!" Ascot added with a smile.

"Free?" That caught Eagle's attention.

"Yup! Food for all three of you is free!" Umi informed him happily. "I'll even pack you some food for tomorrow for when you start your journey again."

Someone called Umi from the kitchen.

"I'll bring some food for you in a moment! Have a seat please!" Umi told Eagle and then quickly walked toward the kitchen.

Eagle quietly pulled a chair out and sat down facing Ascot. Then he pulled Hikaru up onto his lap, so he could know where she was at all times.

She pulled her braid around and started playing with it.

"Hikaru, did you roll into the fireplace on purpose?" Ascot asked quietly, his brow furrowed.

"Yes." Hikaru replied, looking up at him.

It was only then he noticed that her eyes were red. He felt a sharp pang of alarm before he forced it down. Hikaru was the Fire Child. She could stand in fire and the only thing it'd do is age her. Having red eyes for her didn't mean she was evil; it just was another sign of the fire that supposedly dwelt within her.

He hoped.

"Why?" Ascot asked politely.

"I felt I was too much of a burden as a baby." Hikaru explained, and from her use of words it seemed that her mind might have aged more than six years. "I couldn't run at all if we needed to, I always had to be carried, diaper changing had to happen often. I felt that I'd be more useful if I was older. The fire in the fireplace said that it could age me, if I wanted it to. I wanted to become a teenager at least, but Umi put the fire out before it was able to get me there. Don't worry, next time I see a fire, I'll become a teenager!"

"Hikaru, for one thing, you never were a burden." Eagle stated firmly. "And for another thing, as interesting as this aging by fire process is, please don't do it again so soon, okay? Not for a while."

Hikaru looked up at Eagle and Eagle couldn't suppress a shiver after looking into her eyes.

"Okay, if it makes you that uncomfortable." She replied, before going back to fiddling with her braid.

Eagle let out a sigh of relief when the eyes had left him.

"The fire still calls to me though." Hikaru said abruptly, but in a shushed tone. "The fire from far away. It's an urgent call, pleading."

Eagle and Ascot exchanged glances across the table.

Then Umi quietly sauntered up to the table.

After she quickly sat Eagle's plate of food down in front of him, she leaned down to Ascot, and whispered to him.

"Are you friends with a giant birdlike creature almost the size of this Inn?" She asked in his ear.

He started.

"Yes, why?" He asked alarmed.

"He's eating out of our trash box out back." Umi explained with a smile, but quickly added as Ascot was about to leap up. "Don't worry, it's okay! Its just trash, but since he can eat it, there's no sense in it going to waist. Let him eat, nobody in the kitchen minds. Half of them are saying he looks kind of cute, and he does have a sweet disposition."

She left the table then, to tend to other tables.

Ascot released a breath, and stared at her back.

"Wow, the whole kitchen staff doesn't mind a giant beast eating so close to them, that's new!" Eagle stated with a smile, as he let Hikaru select her choice of food off his plate. "With all the evil creatures that Empress Debonair created and lets roam about, it's hard to find anybody not afraid of big and unusual creatures even if they do show a sweet disposition."

Ascot just smiled happily and raised his glass again.

"Hm?" Hikaru muttered as she sat up in Umi's bed.

Umi had leant Hikaru her own bed for the night, and she herself slept on a makeshift bed just beside her. It had been decided that Hikaru would sleep with Umi tonight, while Eagle and Ascot slept in two of their Inn rooms. After all, it seemed like a good idea that if a competent enemy were to come after them here, they would look in the customer's rooms first.

Something had woken Hikaru just now, and she rubbed her eyes sleepily.

She looked around the darkened room, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Yet, something was nagging her. Something was calling her, calling her still as it had been calling her all this time.

"_Please come, please, come quickly. Come to the floating mountain. Follow my light; follow my call. He waits for you. The great fire waits for you. He needs you, as much as you need him. Come, please. So much depends upon it. He waits for you, at the floating mountain. The Prophecy, fulfilled it must be. Soon."_

And the whispering voice would start over again, ringing in Hikaru's head like sound would ring in her ears. It was hard for her to ignore it, but she thought that she must ignore it.

Eagle and Ascot were taking her somewhere special, somewhere they thought she must go. She was inclined to go with them, to wherever it was.

Still, her will to go with her companions and protectors, though very strong, didn't stop the headache that ignoring the voice caused.

Hikaru quietly threw back the white cover sheet and slipped off the bed.

Her bare feet padded gently across the floor as she crossed quietly over to the one window in the room, and looked out threw the blue veil curtains.

It had stopped raining, and three soft moons hung in the sky. One shown gold, one shown silver, and the last shown red. The red one was the smallest, and the furthest away from the other two. It started to grow dark as Hikaru watched and her eyes widened as she saw that the darkness that was covering it up was not a natural darkness of night. It was also coming in her direction.

Hikaru was not afraid of the dark, she could make her own light if need be, but she knew that this must be the darkness that was spreading because of Empress Debonair. She had overheard Eagle and Ascot discussing this, and a few travelers also talked about it too.

She felt that Eagle and Ascot must know!

Hikaru quickly turned around and started walking toward her bed, though her eyes had not yet adjusted again to the dark.

She bumped softly into the side of the bed, placed a hand on it, and walked around it over to the sleeping Umi.

Hikaru reached down and went to pat her shoulder, but instead of feeling smooth cloth of a nightdress or cover sheet, she felt smooth scales.

All thoughts of the spreading darkness left her for the time being, because this did slightly scare her, and she gasped in surprise.

Then she saw a dark shadow move from Umi's shoulder, and a thin part of it raised up.

Hikaru didn't move, but her eyes watched alertly as the shadow that was rising up rose up to her eye level.

The moonlight from behind her that came through the window, fell over her shoulder and she could see what was staring at her now.

Moonlight glinted off tiny beady eyes as they stared at Hikaru steadily. Blue and white scales rippled down its smooth small body. It sniffed the air with its nostrils, which slightly flared out and in.

Hikaru decided to be polite.

"Hi!" She whispered to it with a smile.

The tiny dragon stared at her a minute longer and then a narrow forked tongue flicked out, licked Hikaru on the cheek and was pulled swiftly back in behind small white dew drop sized thorns of teeth.

Hikaru giggled happily at its apparent friendliness.

Her giggling roused Umi.

"What's going on?" Umi asked groggily, sitting up with a yawn.

The little dragon perched his front legs on Umi's left shoulder, and wrapped its slender body around her arm to secure itself. In fact, adding its neck to the rest of it, it seemed that it was just slightly longer than Umi's arm, from wrist to shoulder.

It rubbed its head against her cheek, and a soft purring sound could be heard.

"Ah, Selece, I haven't seen you all day today. I was getting worried." Umi muttered to it, as she stroked its chin.

Then she noticed Hikaru standing over her.

"Ah, Hikaru! Did Selece wake you?" Umi asked with a small smile. "I've very sorry if he did. He's usually very quiet."

"No, the little dragon didn't wake me." Hikaru assured her, and then suddenly remembered the darkness she had seen.

She quickly looked back at the window.

The darkness had enveloped the first red moon completely and was now eating away at the second.

"Umi, I must talk with Eagle and Ascot! The darkness is coming!" Hikaru explained, pointing out the window.

Umi took one look outside, watched for a moment and then jumped up with a hiss from Selece.

"Come!" She demanded of Hikaru as she took Hikaru's hand and quickly walked toward the door.

Umi led Hikaru down a hall or two until she came to a door on the left of the hall with the number 730.

She knocked on the door, and waited.

No one answered, so she knocked again.

When the door opened it wasn't Ascot as the room was assigned to, but a three-foot high creature with the body of a horse, the neck of a dragon, and the head of a cat.

Umi and Hikaru stared at it for a moment, and then they both smiled at it.

The creature smiled back and turned around.

It let out a long low sound that started out a meow, went to a hiss, and ended in a neigh.

Ascot was at the door instantly.

"What is it?" He mumbled through a yawn.

He shook his bangs out of his eyes, saw Umi and started blushing. He'd never had a girl come to his door before.

"Hikaru says the darkness is coming. It's definitely swallowed two moons already." Umi explained quickly.

Ascot blinked for a moment.

Then he raised his still gloved hand, he never took that glove off, and sucked the cute little creature back into the jewel. 

Then in another swift motion he threw the hand toward the window and another creature flew out of the jewel.

It flew out the open window and into the night.

Then he grabbed Umi and Hikaru both by the hands and pulled them into the room.

He ran over to the door that connected his room with Eagle's and didn't bother knocking on it.

He went through it and called Eagle's name loudly.

There were a few moments of silence before Ascot came back to his room with Eagle pulling on a shirt after him.

"I'm sorry Lady Umi, but it seems we must leave now." Eagle spoke as he strapped on his holster.

"I understand. Everything is ready." Umi replied.

As Ascot pulled on his cape, Umi turned and lead them down to the kitchen.

She pulled out the bags that she had packed for them earlier.

"What is that darkness that's coming this way?" Umi asked worriedly. "It looks thick."

"It's the darkness of Empress Debonair." Eagle explained, as Ascot quickly picked Hikaru up. "It is thicker than the normal darkness of night and once it settles down around people Empress Debonair can then use it to channel her evil into people and control them."

"I take it, that I should wake up everybody, huh?" Umi asked a frown creasing her face.

"Yes." Eagle replied, picking up the packs.

"Thank you for everything Lady Umi, it's been greatly appreciated." Ascot thanked her with a small bow, only then noticing the little dragon sitting on her shoulder.

"You're welcome, Ascot. Take good care of yourselves!" Umi replied before running back up the stairs to wake her parents.

Eagle was the first to open the back door. The rain was still paused, but Eagle felt that could start falling again at any minute.

As he, Ascot and Hikaru ventured out into the night again they looked around intently for the darkness or any other enemy, but being as they were at the back of the building they could not see the coming darkness which was closer than they thought.

Ascot whistled and the birdlike creature that had eaten out of the trash box earlier came out from the woods.

It scooped Ascot, Hikaru and Eagle up in it's big arms and started running into the forest, setting a fast pace.

He was just in time to escape the darkness that was just then seeping out from under the back door of the Inn.


	9. Chapter 9

Fire Child

By LadyPrin

Disclaimer applies.

Thanks to Itena-Chan (AU?), CrecentMoon, Seirin, Midnight Blue08 and all those who put me in their Favs! I'm sorry I took so darn long to update, and I hope I haven't lost many readers! I have two fanfiction stories going and I got their storylines and plots messed up and then I forgot half of them. I haven't had very much time for writing them out and getting my brain in order, but I think I'm back in the groove again. I'm never doing two stories at the same time again. Anyway, here's a LONG chapter to make up for my being lost for so long and I hope that if you find it boring, you'll stick around to see it pick up!!  
Many thanks,

LadyPrin

P.S. Please exuse any mispelling as I do not have a spell check in this word document program that I'm using.

Chapter Nine

They had given up on stealthiness a few minutes ago and had just let the giant creature whose hands they sat in run flat out through the forest. The reason for this was that the darkness was gaining, way too fast.

Ascot held Hikaru tightly and though she was getting uncomfortable, she didn't dare say anything.

"You do realize, that I have completely lost our barings?" Eagle cried out to them from the creature's other hand.

"Don't worry, I won't hold it against you!" Ascot replied. "I never had them to begin with!"

Hikaru giggled softly behind her little hand.

Then the creature suddenly let out a bloodcurdling shriek and stopped in it's tracks.

"Ascot what's wrong with him?" Eagle asked worriedly.

Ascot just gazed up at the creature for a minute and watched as it shook it's head viciously from side to side, it's movement causing them all to shake.

Then it stopped, and slowly it looked down at them.

It's eyes were completely black, but as they watched a red light seemed to start growing out from the pupils.

"JUMP!" Ascot cried to Eagle as he grabbed hold of Hikaru.

Ascot jumped from the giant hand just as the talons closed. He heard his cape rip loudly as he fell to the ground, his arms still holding Hikaru to his chest.

Eagle had excaped the other hand as well, and as he came to stand beside Ascot he drew his laser gun.

"The darkness has touched him!" Ascot explained, his fear making him shout. "He's evil now!"

The creature shrieked again, and Hikaru clapped her hands to her ears because the sound hurt her.

"Hikaru!" Ascot and Eagle both shouted, concerned for her.

Then Ascot gave Hikaru to Eagle and advanced two steps toward the creature he once knew, and still considered, as friend.

"Shhh, it's going to be okay." Ascot tried to talk to the creature calmly and assuringly, like he would do to calm him down when he got upset over something, but this time it wasn't working.

The creature raised its talons, preparing to swing at Ascot and fling him out of his way.

Ascot brought up his glove and tried to summon him back into it.

The creature didn't try to fight against him and was soon back in the jewel. What Ascot didn't know was that the darkness had gone too.

"Is it gone?" Hikaru asked quietly.

Ascot glanced at her, but then cried out as the darkness started crawling out of his jewel in multiple tendrils, curling their way up his arm.

"Ascot!" Eagle cried, torn between trying to help his friend, and knowing there was nothing he could to do help him and he should just take Hikaru and run.

Before Eagle could decide his next action, Hikaru was gone from his arms.

"Hikaru, NO!" Eagle cried, as Hikaru dashed toward Ascot.

Eagle had the longer legs and would've gotten to her first, if Ascot had been a little further away from them.

But he was too close, and in the split second it took Eagle to realize where Hikaru was going, it was too late.

She reached him and wrapped both her arms around Ascot's blackening arm.

"Hi-ka-ru!" Ascot tried to cry, but his resistence against the darkness was failing, and his vision was blurring, and his voice came slow and forced.

Bright orange light erupted from where Hikaru's hands met Ascot's arm.

The dark tendrils tried to strike at the flames like a snake would strike its prey, but the fire grew bigger than the darkness and struck back like a wolf, encircling the darkness just around where the head would've been if it was a snake.

The intense battle raged, but Eagle couldn't see it because he had been slightly blinded when the light had first erupted.

Ascot couldn't see it because his vision was gone now, but he could still feel it. The fire should have burned him, but it only felt gently warm because the painful chill of the darkness canceled out most of its warmth. On his skin where nothing but darkness touched, Ascot could only feel pain. The kind of pain one feels when one sticks their hand into the snow and keeps it there too long. But normally, numbness soon followed a frozen hand, but the darkness would not allow that much needed relief. It brought only pain.

Hikaru's cheeks blazed red with the effort to bring forth enough fire to combat the cold darkness. Her crimson eyes blazed too, with determination to help her beloved gaurdian.

The more Hikaru called upon it, the brighter and larger the flames grew. The darkness began shrinking back to the jewel, hissing with its fury. Ascot began to feel relief where-ever the flames touched his skin.

Eagle had recovered most of his vision, and stared in awe and concern at the brave little girl who commanded fire.

Her megenta hair was coming undone from its braid, and her little night dress was billowing around her from the wind that the flames stirred up as they whirled faster around the ever decreasing darkness.

"Hikaru." Eagle whispered, wanting to help her, but not knowing what he could possibly do.

The darkness receeded entirely into the glove, back into the jewel that was now black.

Ascot's vision was coming back, and stared at the foggy sight of his glove. All his animal friends were in there! That was there home. The darkness being in there brought danger to them all!

Hikaru slid both her hands down his arm to place them on top of the jewel.

If Ascot had a little more of his mind and vision back, he would have been alarmed that Hikaru was this close. He would have screamed 'no' at her and tried to fling her away from the evil, back to Eagle where she would be safe. But his foggy mind was only alert enough to think about one thing at a time, and right now it was about his friends who lived in his jewel. By the time his mind registered the little hands covering the jewel from his view, it was too late to stop her.

Hikaru yelled a wordless battlecry and the fire flared up as if alcohol had been thrown on it. It engulfed her, hid her from everyone's view, and pushed its way into the jewel to extinguish the last of the cold souless darkness.

With the darkness gone the flames went out, revealing an exhausted Hikaru of about twelve years old; her hair a little longer and fully undone from the braid, and her dress was no longer there.

She slid the ground, kneeling on her bare knees, and gasping for breath.

Ascot was no longer in pain, the numbness had finally set in, but he was still having trouble getting his brain to work. As he tried to piece together what his vacant eyes had just seen, he stared unseeing off into the trees, his hand hanging limply at his side. The jewel was back to its normal bright color.

Eagle took a few cautious steps forward.

"Hikaru, Ascot." He whispered.

He couldn't bring his voice to be louder, for fear that breaking the silence would bring more darkness upon them.

Ascot swung his head around and looked at Eagle with tired eyes.

Ascot saw that Eagle was unhurt and he was relieved. Then he noticed that Eagle was no longer looking at him, but somewhere by his feet.

Ascot blinked twice, and then looked down.

Then his mind started whirling twice as fast as soon as he saw her.

"Hikaru!" He shouted, kneeling down to her.

She was still gasping, but not as hard. She looked up at him, and smiled a wide smile when she saw he wasn't hurting anymore.

Eagle took off his cape, and was about to throw it around her when noises became audible to them. Many things were coming at them through the trees in the direction they had just come from.

Ascot reacted quickly.

He picked Hikaru up under the arms, raised her up and flung her back toward Eagle.

Eagle caught her in his cape, quickly wrapped it fully around her, and picked her up.

"Go. I'll delay whatever comes now." Ascot told him, trying to sound ready to fight, but only sounding more tired.

Eagle didn't argue.

He turned to run, but heard Ascot add:

"And tell her I said thank you."

Eagle turned back to nod once with a half grin, and then ran head on into the trees; a deeply sleeping Hikaru in his arms.

Ascot turned to face the noises, figuring that it sounded like an onslaught of monsters.

He was about to summon a few of his friends to help battle with him, when someone's shout rang out ahead of him.

"Take THAT you three headed water crab!!"

"Umi, I don't think that's a water crab!"

"I know it wasn't a water crab Fuu, but that was the closest thing it looked like!"

Ascot was so shocked at hearing Umi's voice that his head kind of tilted to the side.

As he listened he heard the sound of metal clashing with armor, and the zing of arrows as they whizzed through the air, and the wordless battlecry of another familier voice.

"Ferio! Behind you!" Fuu cried.

Ascot heard a grunt, and a moment later an arrow whizzed out of the trees and missed Ascot's cheek by a centimeter.

He gulped, frozen to the spot with shock, and confusion.

Then the sounds of battle were abruptly over.

"Everyone alright?" Ascot heard Ferio ask.

"Yeah, we are." Umi replied cheerfully.

"Yes, we are too." Fuu replied softly.

"Great." Ferio replied.

Ascot finally found his voice.

"Yeah, don't worry about me, I'm fine." His voice shook heavily.

"Ascot! Ascot, is that you?" Umi cried out.

Ascot heard rustling as Umi, Fuu, and Ferio fought their way through the brush.

He then sucked in his breath at the sight that greeted him when Umi and Fuu stepped from the trees.

They were all covered in the various colored blood of their enemies, but that was not what caught Ascot's attention.

Umi held a thin long sword in her right hand and wrapped around it was the little dragon that he had noticed just before they left. The dragon had water pouring from its mouth, but the water didn't just fall to the ground, it wrapped itself around the blade of the sword, stopping at the tip. When the dragon saw it was just Ascot, he closed his mouth and let the water fall.

Fuu came out holding her bow and an arrow at the ready, a hawk sized bird with green and white plumage and long tail feathers clung to her shoulder, staring at him with beady eyes. Then the bird spread his wings and started beating them fast.

"It's okay Fuu, it's just Ascot!" Umi explained happily, waiting for Fuu to calm Windom down.

"Not quite!" Fuu yelled, just as she let loose her arrow.

The wind that Windom created with his wings, gave speed to the arrow so that nobody had time to move before the arrow had reached the spot were Ascot stood, and passed him by.

Ascot's robes billowed around him for a moment because of the air that the arrow had disturbed as it passed, and he rapidly blinked twice.

Then a shriek of pain split the air from somewhere in the trees behind Ascot before a dead silence envoloped them.

After a moment of the silence, Fuu lowered her bow.

"Dang you're a good shot." Ferio complemented as he came to stand beside Fuu, his sword swung over his shoulder.

Fuu blushed just ever so slightly.

"I love your skill with that thing, and I love your alertness, but don't ever scare me like that again!" Umi cried, her knees shaking.

By this time, Ascot had had enough.

He flopped down onto the ground and just let his nerves shake him.

"Ascot!" Umi cried as she ran to kneel beside him.

"Too . . . much." Ascot muttered, shaking his head so hard his hat fell off.

Umi laid her sword down beside her on the ground, Selece sitting beside it, and wrapped her arms around Ascot's shoulders. She rocked him back and forth making soft soothing noises to him, like her mother used to do for her.

Ascot blushed so bad Ferio and Fuu could see the red through his long brown bangs.

"Ascot, are you okay?" Ferio asked with concern as he and Fuu came closer.

Ascot stared up at them through his bangs.

"My animal friends just got turned evil.The darkness tried to turn me evil.Hikaru saved us all.Then I almost got hit by two arrows!I should be okay by the end of the decade!" Ascot babbled, half crazed.

Ferio looked taken aback for a minute, then he gathered himself and said sharply.

"Ascot, get a hold of yourself!"

Ascot's head snapped up and his back straightened immediately, though he was still shaking slightly.

"Yes, Prince." He replied, trying to stop shaking.

Ferio's expression softened.

"Aside from the fact that you're scared, are you otherwise okay now?" He asked.

"Yes, sir." Ascot replied.

"Now what do you mean by Hikaru saved you all?" Ferio asked.

"She used her fire to destroy the darkness." Ascot explained simply, not wanting to go into too much detail and start another shaking fit.

"Is she sitll six?" Umi asked curiously.

"What do you mean six? She's just a few days old!" Ferio exclaimed.

"Actually sir, we found out that if she's eveloped in fire, she ages. She's now around twelve or so." Ascot explained.

"You're going to have to explain what I've missed, but right now, where is Eagle and Hikaru?" Ferio asked urgently.

Ascot half twisted around to face the trees behind him.

"Somewhere in that direction . . ."

Eagle had never thought that he'd ever run head on into a rainstorm, but he just had.

One minute he was running, the next minute he caught sight of a wall of shimmering white and heard the pounding sound increase dramatically, and the last minute he rammed into the shimmering wall and was instantly soaked from head to boot.

He grunted as one of his feet slipped out from under him.

He reached for a low hanging branch, but missed and fell flat onto his back into the mud, with Hikaru lying across his chest.

The jolt that went through Eagle as he hit the ground (soft though most of it was) went through Hikaru as well (though most of the impact was absorbed by Eagle). She awoke soaked and alittle muddy too.

She didn't mind though.

"Are you okay?" She asked as she sat up off of Eagle, yelling so she'd be heard through the roar of the rain.

Eagle wasn't sure he wanted to sit up because his head was pounding something terrible, but he didn't want to stay laying down and drown himself.

"I'm fine." He grunted as he slowly sat up, not sure if Hikaru heard him or not.

Hikaru seemed to though as she didn't ask again, and she looked relieved.

As Eagle sat there in the mud stretching and popping, Hikaru looked up into the dark tree tops, but had to look away after a moment because the raindrops kept trying to hit her eyes.

Then Eagle thought of something.

"Uh, Hikaru!" He yelled to catch her attention.

"Yes?" She yelled back.

"Are you okay?" He asked worriedly, after all she was the Fire Child and it was raining more than buckets upon them . . .

"I'm okay!" Hikaru nodded at him in reassurence.

Eagle wasn't sure how that was possible, but she looked fine so the most important problem right now was finding shelter from the rain and hoping nothing found them there.

Eagle helped Hikaru to her feet and offered to carry her, but Hikaru thought it was best to walk with him.

"After all, not having to be carried was one of the reasons I aged!" Hikaru reminded him happily, pulling his cape closer to herself.

"Uh huh." Eagle murmered in agreement, remembering her explanation earlier.

They slogged their way through the mud, soaked brush and trees for what seemed like years but was really only four hours or so. They slipped many times especially because they were treking up hill.

Once, the trees let loose a whole bathtub full of rainwater upon them unexpectedly sending them sliding down the hill for four or five yards to finally stop when their feet hit a piticularly fat tree. They couldn't stop laughing for five whole minutes.

Eagle always kept his eyes open for any sign of shelter, but he couldn't see very well. The rain made it seem like they were inside a cloud, and his soggy bangs weren't helping any.

But he did notice something about Hikaru.

"Hikaru?" Eagle called to get her attention.

"Yes?" She asked.

"You look older, and taller?" He stated questioningly.

Hikaru looked at the ground for a moment.

"I do seem taller." She confirmed, looking back at him. "The fire within me wants to keep me dry and I've been battling to not become a fireball again 'cause I'm sure you won't take it very well. But it must be getting through-- Ah!"

She slipped and nearly fell, but Eagle cought her hand and pulled her back up.

"Hikaru, you're really warm . . ." He murmered.

Then he shook his head and looked around again.

They needed shelter now, before Hikaru started growing older faster.

It was then he started making out familier landmarks.

"This way." He told Hikaru after a moment of studying them.

As he lead Hikaru through the rain, he started coughing and sneezing.

'Great, just what I need! A cold!' Eagle thought, and then preceeded to curse silently.

Then he saw it; the cave.

"In here!" Eagle cried to Hikaru and they lunged inside.

It was dark, but it was dry and large.

"Lantis?" Eagle called into the cave.

His voice rebounded off the walls echoing back to him, but no other voice replied.

"Guess he's not home." Eagle muttered slumping down with his back against a side wall.

"Who's Lantis?" Hikaru asked quietly.

She felt that if she talked any louder, it would be considered rude, even if the person wasn't home to hear it.

"He's my best friend." Eagle replied through a coughing fit. "I haven't seen him in a couple years, but this was the last place I visited him. I hope he still lives here, we could use his help."

Hikaru started walking toward where Eagle had walked, but tripped over a pile of dry wood that had been stacked neatly in the middle of the floor.

"Are you okay?" Eagle called out.

"I'm fine!" Hikaru assured him quickly.

She remembered that those few times that Uncle Ascot, Ferio and Eagle had made camp, they had stacked the wood like this and set fire to it to keep themselves warm.

She rearranged the wood as best she could and then drew up a little fireball into her hand. She moved her hand close to the wood and it leaped from her hand to the wood and set it blazing bright.

Now she could see Eagle slumping over by the wall.

"You don't look well." She commented as she came to kneel beside him, holding the wet cape to herself while the fire within her started to make it dryer.

"Might have caught a cold . . ." Eagled muttered, feeling his eyelids grow heavy.

He glanced over at Hikaru and was alarmed in a muffled sort of way to see that she was looking redder and was aging faster now. She must now be around thirteen.

"Hikaru . . . Stop aging!!" Eagle choked out.

Hikaru was startled. She hadn't even noticed it was happening.

After a few minutes of feeling the fire within her and telling it she could dry herself now, it finally calmed.

She didn't look so red now and Eagle no longer saw aging in her face. She looked around fourteen now though.

"If you keep that up, by the time we reach the floating mountain you'll be so old you won't be able to produce a single spark." Eagle stated, only half jokingly.

Hikaru gave a half grin, but she was too worried about Eagle who now laid down on his side, and she was also thinking.

"If you all had wanted me to get to this floating mountain as fast as possible, why not have Ascot summon a huge flying creature and just fly me there?" Hikaru asked, waving her hands around exasperatedly.

"We did think about having Ascot or Clef summon a flying creature." Eagle admitted tiredly. "But you would have been too noticable."

"But the darkness can't fly above a certain level, it wouldn't have been able to catch up so easily." Hikaru stated with certainty. She knew this by the fact that she had overheard some people back at the Inn commenting about it.

Eagle was too tired and sick to wonder how she knew that.

"True, but there are other creatures that serve the Empress, that do it of their own free will." Eagle replied, his eyes closing. "We couldn't afford . . . to encounter . . . those."

"Eagle?" Hikaru called to him, but he made no reply.

He didn't even move.

Hikaru shook his shoulder's gently, but it did no good.

She was so caught up in trying to wake Eagle that she didn't notice the looming black silowet that had just stepped inside the entrance to the cave.

"Who are you?" The man called to her, in a sharp tone of voice.

His voice startled Hikaru, and she turned around quickly to look at him, her still somewhat damp bangs swishing in front of her crimson eyes.

She didn't answer right away, but instead tried to see any of his features, but he was too much in shadow. This frightened her, and she wondered if she'd have to call the fire again.

"I said who are you?" The figure demanded, as he took a few steps closer.

His last step brought his front half into the light of the low fire and his features were revealed.

His black hair was cut just above his neck, his bangs were long and hung in front of his eyes, and those eyes . . . Hikaru was caught by them.

He opened his mouth to speak again, but this time another voice spoke.

"Master Lantis demands to know who you are!" A little voice screamed at her and something came flying across her face, just close enough that she felt something soft brush both her cheeks and she saw a flash of blue.

That snapped her out of her trance.

"My name's Hikaru!" She cried, standing up straight, and cluching Eagle's cape tightly to herself. "And this is --!"

"Eagle!" Lantis cut her off, having just spotted his best friend lying motionless on the cave floor.


	10. Chapter 10

Fire Child

By LadyPrin

Disclaimer Applies.

I had written this up when I was just starting to seriously write this story, but it didn't seem to fit until now. I'm glad to finally use it. Enjoy! 

Chapter Ten

A tall man stood on the edge of a floating mountain, staring out onto the land, the Kingdom of Cephiro.

His mountain was not so high up that he was above the dark clouds, so he could see with much clarity, though he dreaded what he found.

The visible darkness that emanated pure evil that Empress Debonair had sent out months ago was spreading and had almost reached the shore nearest the mountain.

The wind that blew was cold, and even though he wore heavy dark blue clothing, cape, gray armor with purple jewels, and a heavy headdress of armor the wind still chilled him to the core. He knew that this was the only warning the evil darkness would ever give to anyone of its silent approach.

He knew that his Princess had probably already battled with the darkness. She wouldn't have let it get this far before trying to do something about it. The sight of the darkness creeping slowly toward him, hinted of what he feared the most. That his beloved Princess Emeraude had failed, and possibly . . . died in the attempt to save her Kingdom.

He wanted so much to go to her, to see what had become of her, to be by her side through whatever she was going through, but he had a duty that was first above all else. Though he knew it was necessary, and that it was what Princess Emeraude would want him to do, his heart felt heavy with anger at having to stay here. That anger also raised guilt, for he knew he shouldn't be feeling that.

"Priest Zagato, may I join you here?" Came a quiet voice from behind him.

Zagato turned partway around, and through his long black hair that the wind was tossing about, he could see who was speaking to him.

"Of course. You're always welcome to join me." He replied to the large wolf of fire that stepped up beside him.

After a few moments of silent staring at the land below, the giant wolf spoke again.

"I know of the anger and frustration that burns bright within your heart." He began.

Zagato's cheeks turned slight red with shame and he couldn't look at the fire wolf.

"You wish to leave here, for whatever reasons of your own. I think you should go." The wolf continued.

Zagato turned sharply to look at the fire wolf.

"Why? It is my duty to wait here for the Fire Child. To keep her safe in the floating mountain for as long as I can while teaching her everything I know about magic, so that when the darkness starts to ascend to the castle, she'll be ready to fight. Why do you think I should forsake that duty when the Fire Child is already coming?" Zagato asked softly, but only curiously, not angrily.

"What the Fire Child needs to learn, you cannot teach her." The fire wolf responded thoughtfully. "She must learn for herself. If you can do any good for this Kingdom, it will not be done here on this mountain. Two of the Fire Child's protectors have been separated from her, and the last protector is useless to her now. The Fire Child is now on her own. She will not make it to the mountain, even if the Fire Beacon continues to call her. She will try, but she will fail if things do not change. I have this feeling that where you want and need to go is not to the Fire Child. Go where you will, I shall try to meet up with the Fire Child before the path she walks to me crumbles." The wolf answered.

After a moment of silence, Zagato spoke in a rueful tone.

"I guess I don't have to ask if you are sure about this. If you weren't sure, you wouldn't bother to speak it."

"You have learned." The wolf replied with a hint of admiration in his deep voice.

Zagato turned to face the wolf, and the wolf turned his head to look at him.

"Thank you for being my companion through the last few days." Zagato thanked him with a bow. "It has been a great honor."

"It was an honor to live with you as well, even though our time was short." The wolf replied. "Fare well, and I hope we meet again."

"As do I." Zagato agreed.

Then he turned on his heel and walked toward the door to the mountain's castle, but before he reached it he faded into nothing.

When he was gone the fire wolf looked to the land, his long golden horn on his forehead glinted strongly in the light of his fire fur.

"Good luck, Lord Zagato." He murmured to himself, before turning around and starting his climb up the mountain.

There was a Fire Beacon to put out and a journey to begin.


	11. Chapter 11

Fire Child

By LadyPrin

Disclaimer Applies.

Thanks to Fangirl-Tachi, midnight blue08, Twilight Dark Angel, Seirin, & Sylmarien (Thank you extra much! Stay tuned, 'cause I have decided to throw in 3 extra characters from the MKR manga later on in the story. I think many will be surprised as to who they are. ^. ~ ) for all the reviews, and thanks to all who faved the story as well! I'm sorry for any misspelling's and stuff. Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter Eleven

Hikaru sat toward the back of the cave, silently watching Lantis as he stoked the fire that still raged bright in the center of the floor.

She hunkered down and pulled her now dry cape to where it covered her nose and only let her eyes and everything above them show.

When Lantis had seen Eagle he had gone directly to his side and had started tending to him. Eagle was still breathing, but there seemed to be little else that Lantis could do to help him aside from keeping him warm.

After a long silent observing look at her, he had told Hikaru to go sit at the back of the cave, and then he had started preparing the fire for cooking food on. The little pixie who's hair had been the small blue flash that Hikaru had seen was sitting on Eagle's shoulder, making sure he still breathed.

Hikaru was growing sleepy and so she closed her eyes, but after a moment she heard soft footsteps approaching her and she opened them again.

Lantis had been wearing black armor when he had arrived back at the cave, but now his armor was no where in sight. Instead, he now wore just plain black pants, and a long sleeved black shirt, with a little circlet around his head.

He was silent as he came to sit beside Hikaru. Even sitting, it seemed to Hikaru that he was so much taller than her.

They sat in silence for a couple of long minutes. During those minutes, that voice which had continued to call Hikaru started growing louder and louder.

Unconsciously, she started shaking her head back and forth, silently telling it to be quiet, please! It wouldn't stop and her head shaking got so vigorous that Lantis was looking at her with his head tilted to the side and both eyebrows raised. The pixie who still sat on Eagle's shoulder was staring at her too with an expression of confused curiosity.

Then the shouting in her head stopped. She quit shaking her head so abruptly that there was a sharp loud pop! The sound was so unexpected and loud that it made Lantis, the pixie, and even Eagle jump. Lantis and the pixie thought she had broken her neck. Eagle was in too much of a stupor to even try to think about what the sound might have been from.

Then, in a soft, almost tired voice it said: "Oh nevermind. Events have changed and He's coming to you now. Stay put!"

After that, it never spoke again and Hikaru's head felt hollow; empty.

She didn't know what to make of it.

Lantis was hesitant, but also worried.

He reached out to touch her lightly on the shoulder and she jumped. She had been so focused on the voice in her head that she had forgotten about her surroundings.

She looked at him with startled eyes that calmed almost immediately.

"Uh, yes?" She asked, once she realized who he was.

"Are you, okay?" Lantis asked with only a hint of hesitation in his voice. "You are acting very strange."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Hikaru replied, understanding that she was making her new companion worried and not wanting him to be. "It's just, well, a fire from far away has been calling me for a long time. I've tried ignoring it as best I can, but it was getting real loud a few minutes ago. Then it stopped and I don't know why, but I'm glad it stopped. It's yelling was hurting my head."

Lantis continued to stare at her; thinking.

Hikaru misinterpreted his silence and stare to mean that he was still worried.

"I'm okay, really, I am!" Hikaru assured him, giving him a big smile.

"You're, the Fire Child aren't you?" He structured it like a question, but it sounded like he was stating a fact.

"Well, that's what Uncle Eagle, Ascot, and Ferio kept calling me." Hikaru replied. "Also, this lady I only remember a little bit about, she was the first one to start calling me that. I don't recall her name, but she had long gold hair and sad blue eyes."

"Princess Emeraude." Lantis muttered to himself.

"That sounds familiar. Might have been her." Hikaru admitted.

"Where were you and Eagle going?" Lantis asked quietly, gazing into the fire.

"To a floating mountain." Hikaru replied, gazing into the fire as well. "I don't know what I was supposed to do there, but I know that's where they needed me to be."

"And the fire that was calling to you, was it trying to lead you somewhere different?" Lantis asked, standing up and going over to poke the fire again.

"I don't know." Hikaru responded quietly, and a bit tiredly. "I just know it wanted me to hurry. Now it wants me to stay. . ."

Hikaru's eyes drooped a little and she stared unfocused into the fire through half opened eyes.

Lantis glanced toward her when her words trailed off softly, and would have glanced back towards the fire were it not for something about her eyes, what little he could see of them.

Fire danced within her eyes, making them glow warmly. The more he stared, the more the fire invited him to come closer and look deeper.

He didn't move, but it took all of his self control and discipline. He was also slightly weary of what he might see if he did look deeper. 'Twas not that he felt afraid of her, oh no, far from that. He felt like she was just a child in need of his protection and she was, but he also knew that fire was unpredictable and could change at a moment's notice. He didn't move now, because he didn't know what would set this fire to raging.

He tried to look away from those eyes, but found that he could not. Those eyes held him, though he would bet anything he had that the mind behind those eyes did not know she did it.

He fought with all his warrior's will not to move closer to her, but his resolve was slowly chipping away.

He wondered why Primera didn't go into one of her "he's mine!" rants. For the first time since she started them, he could use one now!

Oh, by his blade, he could use one now!

If he got too close to her . . .

And she suddenly realized he was there . . .

She would be startled and that might set her fire loose . . .

He just couldn't help it . . .

Those eyes . . .

Those eyes that held the fire that mesmerized the warrior suddenly closed all the way and released him from his inner burden.

He found that he was on his knees just a foot away from her.

He quickly looked away and saw that the reason why Primera didn't go into her rant, was because she didn't know of the situation.

She was sleeping on Eagle's shoulder. her tiny wings curled about her.

Lantis automatically checked Eagle's breathing. His shoulder was rising and falling in a steady rhythm, that assured Lantis that he was still alive and seemed to be getting slightly better.

Lantis sighed and stood up stiffly.

He walked around the fire, putting it between him and Hikaru before he sat down again.

From this side of the fire, Lantis could just barely make out Hikaru's image. It was distorted, but not in a bad way. More like, if one was looking through melted glass while the master glass maker was molding it into something useful and beautiful. He saw the dark magenta of her hair, the peach of her skin, and the gray of Eagle's cloak dancing together with the orange, red, yellow, white and blue of the flames before him.

It crossed his mind vaguely of how Hikaru was already being molded into something that Cephiro thought would be useful for its protection. Though he hated to have to think of anybody so young as 'useful' in terms of war, but he had no doubt she would turn out to be beautiful, even if only dangerously so.

Abruptly, lighting flashed across the opening to the cave and thunder crashed through the silence as if to shatter it like glass itself.

Primera leaped from her perch on Eagle's shoulder.

"WHA--?" She screamed, then in a split second took in her surroundings.

Once she regained her surroundings, she understood the noise and softly fluttered back to Eagle's shoulder where she patted him gently before laying back down to sleep again.

But not before checking on Lantis with a swift, only partially concealed look of worry.

Lantis gave her one of his rare half smiles to reassure her, and she smiled back at him before she curled her wings and closed her eyes.

One of the reasons he had come to like Primera was because of how quick she was to take in any given situation and to react accordingly without need of commands or suggestions. It was an aspect of her personality that he found very important to him. So important that he could overlook the other aspect of her personality that sometimes threatened to send him into an early grave.

Every time a female came within a close proximity to him Primera would go into a rant of how Lantis was 'her man'. If her little rant ever helped to drive the swooning females off, then he wouldn't have so major an objection toward it, but in all truthfulness it did nothing to deter them. It only made him really annoyed.

He was curious though as to why she hadn't done her rant when she first saw Hikaru. Maybe she thought Hikaru was too young to be a threat, which he wasn't about to argue with. . .

Suddenly, his nose detected the scent of burning cloth.

His first reaction was to look down at himself.

Was he sitting too close to the fire?

No.

Then he stood up to look at Hikaru over the flames.

She was awake, holding the cloak closed with one hand while touching the top edge of it with a finger of her other hand.

The first two inches of the edge crumbled away into ash.

She gulped and looked up at him, her eyes wide and nervous.

He answered her unspoken fear.

"I'm sure Eagle won't mind." He said quietly as he sat back down. "He was in need of a new one anyway."

He heard her soft sigh of relief over the still pouring rain.

The silence that had once been shattered by the sudden rage of thunder seemed to momentarily repair itself as he and Hikaru sat without speaking.

In fact, the silence seemed to have repaired itself into a wall that was placed between them. It was like this for so long that Lantis thought Hikaru had fallen asleep again, but then she spoke.

"Lantis . . . ?"

"Yes?" He answered quietly, staring at the fire.

"You called me the Fire Child, just like Eagle, Ascot, and Ferio did. So maybe, you can answer a question for me." Hikaru started, staring into the fire as well.

"Maybe . . ." He was not quick to promise anything for there were some questions he was forbidden to answer, some questions he was not able to answer, and some questions better left unanswered.

"Once I get to the floating mountain, what will I have to do?" She asked. "What will be expected of me?"

That was not a question he thought he'd be asked and so he needed some time to gather his response.

Hikaru thought his silence meant he did not understand her question, so she sought to elaborate.

"I mean, several people have given me the name Fire Child, and every time someone calls me that I have this feeling in my heart that they expect something big from me." She explained. "But nobody has told me what it is they expect. Everyone has given me so much already, I want to know what they want, or what they need, and I want to give it to them as soon as possible! To repay what they've given me. I was hoping you'd be able to tell me. Maybe it'll be able to help Eagle and the others."

"Hikaru, do you know what it is you're running from? What it is they're protecting you from?" He asked, knowing what he wanted to say, but unsure how to say it.

"Darkness. Empress Debonair's darkness, that does bad things to people and creatures." Hikaru replied.

"Well, a long time ago someone made a prophecy about it." Lantis started.

"What's a prophecy?" Hikaru asked.

Lantis thought for a moment.

"It's a prediction. Someone knows that something is going to happen in the future, how that something will happen, and such. They in turn, write up a prediction, or a prophecy, to let the rest of the world know about it."

"Okay." Hikaru replied, in understanding.

"A long time ago, someone predicted that the Empress Debonair would try to take over Cephiro with her darkness." Lantis continued. "That someone also predicted certain events that would take place during this time, most of which have come true already. One of the events predicted, was about a child born amidst a raging fire. That fire would bless her, and it will be that blessing that will save Cephiro from the darkness of the Empress."

That was what the prophecy said, though Lantis had omitted many things.

He told her only the outline, not the details.

For the details he was forbidden to tell.

Hikaru was silent for a moment, trying to understand.

"So, I'm supposed to save everyone." Hikaru stated with a questioning tone. "How? Does the prophecy say how I'm supposed to do that?"

Lantis was forbidden to say, but he would not lie, nor leave her without an answer of some kind.

"Prophecy's are often vague, and do not tell us all we would wish to know." He replied slowly.

They both stared at the fire a bit longer.

It seemed to Lantis that the fire was dancing a sad, slow dance. One that told of a heavy burden, and vast uncertainty.

Then Lantis suddenly realized he was not staring into the fire.

The fire had gone down while they had talked and for the last couple of minutes he'd been staring into Hikaru's eyes, believing them to be the fire.

He blinked, trying to refocus his eyes. Hikaru continued to stare, for she knew what it was she was looking at.

"I guess, I'll just have to find out along the way." Hikaru started to say.

She might have said more, if Lantis hadn't suddenly turned his head and stared at the cave's mouth with a dangerous look on his face.

Then, as Hikaru opened her mouth and took a breath to ask him what was wrong, he leapt to his feet in one swift fluid motion.

The next moment, a sword that was almost as long as he was, with a silver blade and a black hilt appeared in his hand.

"Primera, guard!" He commanded in a low voice that could not be denied.

Primera leaped off the still, unconscious Eagle and flew to Lantis, taking up a guard position in front of him while trying to see through her yawn.

Hikaru looked toward the cave's mouth, but saw nothing but the darkness of night beyond.

She could still hear the rain beating hard upon the rock outside.

A cold nose was thrust against her cheek, startling her.

She let out no sound, but turned her head to see what it was.

It was the nose of a horse, a mighty black stallion.

She had no idea where it had come from, but it was there, positioning itself protectively in front of her as Lantis moved toward the cave opening.

Hikaru pulled the cloak closer around her, and ducked her head so she could be able to see between the well muscled legs of the beautiful creature.

She couldn't see any details for there was no light behind the figure who stood just beyond the cave's mouth, nor was he far enough in the cave for the fire to light upon his features, but there was someone there.

For the second time this night, Lantis asked a stranger a simple question.

"Who are you?"

This stranger though, responded quicker than Hikaru had, but he didn't respond in words.

It took him two steps to enter into the light of the fire, but his features were still blocked from their view by a heavy white cloak.

"Who are you?" As Lantis asked this question again, but more sterner than before, the stranger raised his hand which glinted red in the light and flipped the edge of his hood back over his head.

His dark lavender hair was soaked and plastered to his forehead. His skin was deathly pale. His light blue eyes stared at Lantis like the eyes of someone who could not focus truely upon his surroundings.

Lantis recognized this man as well.

As his name flew off Lantis' lips, the man who looked to be no older than sixteen let his crimson hand fall down to his side, his head to fall back, and his legs to give way.

"Master Mage Clef!"

Master Mage Clef hit the warm stones of the cave floor, his eyes half closed, his crimson hand extended unintentionally toward where Hikaru still sat.

Her eyes were drawn to that hand and she shivered for she knew what coated it crimson.

Blood.


	12. Chapter 12

Fire Child

By LadyPrin

Disclaimer Applies.

Thanks to Seirin, midnight blue08, and M.T.H. for reviewing and to all those that faved and ran!

Author's Note:

Sorry I haven't updated either this one or Tear Pearls for over a year. Since my mom passed in 09, my dad was diagnosed with a form of cancer and I've been too tired to try and write anything. Right now I'm using the time I'm spending in the hospital right now to write this out and I hope it's as good as my other chapters. I hope to write more and start wrapping it up soon, so please stay with me, and once again I'm sorry. This was a long one, so I decided to half it up. I'll post the next part in a week or so.

~Chapter Twelve~

Hikaru stood just outside the mouth of the cave, clutching Eagle's slightly burnt cloak to her, and staring up at the sky.

The storm had passed sometime during the early morning hours, but the clouds that remained were ashen in color.

Primera was hovering just above her left shoulder. She had already taken in the sky and was now looking around them, but instead of admiring anything she was looking for danger. Having found none, she proceeded to look Hikaru up and down.

She fought the jelousy that normally grew when Lantis paid more attention to another girl than her, even though he never meant much by it. It was a normal emotion that she was used to letting run rampent and fizzle out, but this time she fought against it, for this time not only was the girl too young to be a threat in that way, but that same girl was a threat in a different way. If Primera were to anger or startle her, Lantis had warned her mere hours earlier, Hikaru could bring flames into being and if Primera was too close at that time, she could be seriously hurt.

"Primera?" Hikaru asked softly, still staring at the sky.

"Yes?" Primera asked back, trying hard not to sound snobbish.

"Do you know the area around here well enough to take a short walk?" Hikaru asked, finally looking over at her.

Primera was about to object, to say that it was safer to just stay inside with Lantis and the others, but Hikaru spoke again before she could.

"I..." She began, then glanced inside the cave then back over at Primera. "I don't want to intrude, but I also don't want to just stand here. Or sit for that matter, my legs are hurting a bit."

Primera hovered there for a minute, uncertain what to do.

"I'll ask Lantis if it's okay to do so." She said finally. "Stay here."

Primera flew back to Lantis's shoulder and quietly asked him. Lantis's expression darkened for a moment, but he glanced at the sleeping form of Master Mage Clef and decided he needed some time to speak to Clef alone.

"Alright, but go no further than the pond. Beyond that it is not safe, and don't linger for long." He instructed her.

With a nod and slight smile, for the pond was her favorite place to be, Primera flew back to Hikaru.

"Come! There's a pond not far from here and we have his permission to go there!"

Upon hearing this, Hikaru smiled and together they set out.

Lantis quietly walked to the mouth of the cave and watched them as they walked into the trees.

The pond was only a mile or so further up the mountain. It wouldn't take them long to reach it. Depending upon how long they decided to stay, he had about three hours of alone time.

With soft footsteps Lantis walked back toward Master Mage Clef, stopping to look down at Eagle.

Eagle had improved, but still hadn't woken. Lantis decided to let him sleep a bit longer, but if he didn't wake up before the girls came back, he'd wake him up when they arrived.

He walked up to the fire and tossed another log onto it, making ash rise into the air for a couple minutes before fluttering back down to settle on the cave floor and his own boots. The rain had passed a while ago, but the cold remained with the clouds.

Once he got to Clef's side, he knealt down beside him.

When Master Mage Clef had collapsed that night Lantis had feared him within breathes of being dead, but it turned out the blood was not his. He had collapsed out of exhaustion from both his energy being drained and his magic.

Lantis had cleaned him up, trying not to think of whose blood that might have been, and had moved him closer to the fire to warm him.

He had slept ever since, never waking even though the lightening and the thunder had continued for a couple more hours afterward.

Now as Lantis reached out to touch his shoulder, Master Mage Clef turned his head to him and Lantis was relieved to see him awake and his eyes clear and focused.

Lantis wasn't sure what to ask first, but before he could ask anything Master Mage Clef spoke first.

"It was her blood." He said with a deadend sort of voice.

It took Lantis only an instant to know who Clef was talking about.

"She's dead?" It was framed as a question, but his tone was that of a statement.

"No, not yet." Clef said, startling Lantis.

"Princess Emeruade is not dead yet. The Empress wants to torture her as much as possible before granting her that mercy." Clef explained in that still deadend voice. "As you know I went there with the Princess the night after the Fire Child set out for the floating mountain. We went to the dark reaches of Cephiro, to confront the Empress as the prophecy foretold, and just as the prophecy foretold, the Princess didn't win even with my help. Her guardian was destroyed and before I could get to her, the darkness ensnared her and jerked her away from me. The blood you cleaned from me was the blood I fell into on the floor trying to reach her."

"My brother will be devestated." Lantis stated softly, hiding his own pain from his voice.

"Your brother was there as well!" Clef spoke with an angry tone now, startling Lantis. "Zagato defied Princess Emeruade's orders to stay on the mountain and await the Fire Child. Just after Emeraude was pulled into the darkness, he strode past me so quickly I wasn't sure it was him. He entered the darkness after her despite my orders not to. This is the only reason why I left them behind, because someone needs to be there to teach the Fire Child, but this was as far as I could bring myself."

"Do you know if..." Lantis trailed off, not wanting to say the words.

"I did not see it with my own eyes, but your brother Zagato is surely dead by now." Clef answered the unspoken question tiredly. "The Empress wants to torture the Princess, so she keeps her alive. If she does not know who he is, she will have no use of him. Even if she did know, killing him still would be but one more thing to torture the Princess with."

Lantis clenched his teeth together, his fists were clenched so hard they became white, and he stared hard at the stone wall above Clef's head.

Princess Emeraude wasn't dead yet, but if the prophecy was to be believed she would soon be. Lantis had been prepared for that, but the prophecy had said nothing about his brother. Lantis was not prepared for that.

After a few minutes Lantis made himself relax.

"Well, Zagato loved Emeruade. I know he would rather die trying to save her, than to live while she died. He defied orders, but I don't blame him."

Clef glanced over at him, but said nothing.

"What do we do now?" Lantis asked, thinking of Hikaru.

Clef struggled to pull himself into a sitting position and managed to do so before Lantis could help him.

"I'm not sure." He said.

He looked over at Eagle, then back at Lantis.

"Tell me how he got here." He said sternly. "He was supposed to be excorting the Fire Child to the mountain with Ascot and Ferio."

"I don't know what's become of Ascot and Ferio, but Eagle was the only one with Hikaru when she got here." Lantis replied.

"Hikaru?" Clef asked, curiously.

"That is the name of the Fire Child." Lantis answered.

Clef's eyes widened.

"The Fire Child is here?" Clef asked, looking around.

"Yes, Primera is watching over her outside, giving us time to talk." Lantis explained. "Hikaru wanted to go for a walk."

Clef's eyebrows came together in a bewildered expression.

"She wanted to go for a walk?" He asked. "How would you know that, she's only a baby! Just a few days old, she can't even walk yet!"

Lantis snorted.

"She is no baby." Lantis responded, but before he could say more Eagle spoke up causing both of them to turn and look at him.

"When fire engulfs Hikaru, it does not harm her, but it does age her. Sometimes the fire is an outside source, at other times she makes it herself." He explained breathlessly as he too struggled to sit up. "Hikaru is now a teenager in body, but seems to be both a child and a woman in mind. She's old enough in mind to understand things you would not think her capable, and yet come things elude her."

"Eagle, how do you feel?" Lantis asked softly going to kneal by his friend.

"Tired to the bone, but alive." Was Eagle's reply. "As to where Ascot and Ferio are, they stayed behind on the outskirts of the last village we came by, to fight against a horde of monsters to give Hikaru and I time to get away. I came here because it was the safest place I knew and I could walk no further."

"Well, as soon as Hikaru returns, I'll take her straight to the mountain. My magic should return enough to do that by the time she arrives. If she is as capable as understanding as you claim Eagle, then training her should not take as long as we feared." Clef stated.

"Yes, Master Clef." Eagle concented, glancing at Lantis.

Lantis was not sure why, but when Clef said that he would take Hikaru to the mountain, Lantis did not want her to go even though he knew she must.

Eagle saw part of the struggle with his emotions in his eyes and apparently Clef saw it too.

"LANTIS!" Clef shouted firmly.

Lantis straightened and looked at him, just as he used to do as a student of Clefs back when he was younger.

"I can't keep you from getting attatched to the Fire Child." Clef began. "But you know full well, she was never supposed to be here. She was never supposed to meet you. She cannot stay here, for you will only destroy her, thus destroying everything else."

So says the prophecy.

Those unsaid words hung in the air between them.

Lantis looked away from Clef and over at Eagle.

Eagle stared him in the eyes for a moment and then sadly looked away.

Lantis cast his eyes down and Clef took it to mean acceptence.

Clef sat back against the wall and after a couple of heavy breathes asked, "So when do you figure they'll return?"

"In about 2 hours now." Lantis replied after a moment.

"Who will return?" A male asked from the mouth of the cave.

Clef looked toward the voice, Eagle struggled to stand, and Lantis in one swift fluid motion stood while drawing his sword.

But he need not have bothered, for there in the cave opening was Ascot.

Ascot took one look at Lantis's drawn sword and sighed.

A hand reached up over Ascot's shoulder and patted him on it.

He looked down as Umi came around him.

"Umi, you-!" Ascot was about to say, but she hushed him.

Umi stepped into the cave and looked around.

She caught sight of Eagle smiling in the corner and smiled back.

"If Eagle's smiling the company can't be that bad!" Umi exclaimed to the others. "Come on in!"

As Lantis lowered his sword, Ascot and Ferio entered closely followed by a timid looking Fuu.

"You're all okay!" Eagle exclaimed happily.

"Ascot and I are okay, only because of a couple very special ladies." Ferio announced, sweeping his hand in the Umi and Fuu's direction.

Fuu and Ascot blushed while Umi giggled.

"He's been like that the entire trek here!" Umi exclaimed with a smile, then looked around again. "So, where's Hikaru?"

Lantis and Clef glanced at each other, but Eagle spoke up immediately.

"She's out taking a walk." He said.

"Alone?" Ascot, Ferio, Fuu and Umi exclaimed together.

"No! A friend of Lantis's is with her." Eagle assured them.

"Oh, okay." Umi replied, walking over to plop down between Clef and Eagle. "So, tell us what's happened since the last time we met? How old is Hikaru now?"

...


	13. Chapter 13

Fire Child

By LadyPrin

Disclaimer Applies.

Thanks to Karu-14, Seirin, Shinomu and Sylmarien! Thank you very much!

Author's note: As promised the second chapter! I hope to write somemore soon!

~Chapter 13~

'It's amazing!' Thought Primera as she flew behind Hikaru. 'It's been a half hour and she has not once asked how much longer 'til we get there!'

Primera was impressed.

The whole way Hikaru had been looking at the sky until the canopy of trees had blocked her view, then she took to looking at the ground still damp from the rain.

'Just a co-' "OH!" Primera said aloud, coming to a stop.

Something pretty had just got her attention, something that sparkled even without the sun to shine upon it.

Primera flew up a couple feet to the branch where it was hanging. It was a spider's web, fairly large for it size, but made of so fine a silvery silk, but that's not what caught her attention. It was the beautiful silver beads of dew that clung delicately to the silk and shimmered when the low breeze stirred it. No bugs had been caught in the web yet, so everything was brand new.

Primera looked around the web and along the branch looking for the spider or creature who called this web home, but she did not find it.

'If I can crystalize one of these dew drops, it'd make for a beautiful necklace piece!' Primera thought as she looked for the most perfect looking one.

She didn't realize that Hikaru hadn't known she'd stopped and had continued up the path.

After a moment, Pirmera realized it and turned to see where Hikaru was. She wasn't that far up the path, Primera reasoned, because Primera could still see her.

'I'll just grab and crystalize one very quickly and catch up to her.' She thought as she reached for one that was on the outer edge.

Abruptly there was the sound of snapping thread, which sounded louder to Primera than it would have to Hikaru because of their sizes.

It had come from behind her, but before she could turn around, she was grabbed around her left wrist. Primera saw that it was a strand of the silk from the web.

"Hey!" Primera shouted, straightening up.

As she reached for her wrist with her free hand, another thread snapped and wrapped around that one.

"HEY!" Primera screamed as she was pulled back against the center of the web making it swing violently and pinning her wings behind her. More threads snapped and wrapped around her ankles and waist.

The silver was turning to black, and Primera was beyond scared now.

"HIKARU!" She screamed, but by then Hikaru was too far away to hear.

More threads wrapped around her starting from her ankles and snaking up all around her body.

"LAN- umf!" Primera tried to scream out Lantis's name, but several threads converged at once to shut and cover her mouth.

Soon Primera was covered in a cocoon of black spider thread, feeling so constricted she thought she'd sufficate.

Then all at once the thread constricted even more and became like razor blades to her flesh.

They didn't slice her all the way through, just enough to go through the first layer of flesh, drawing blood.

Where the blood touched the black thread, the thread turned a dark red color and soon the the threads covering Primera were stained dark red in her shape.

After a second more they loosened and pulled away from her, letting her slip from the web and fall/flutter to crumple upon the ground.

She was cut and bleeding from all over and it hurt to breathe, but she struggled to breathe anyway. Quiet sobs excaped from her bruised and cut lips while tears fell from her under her cut eyelids and stung her cut cheeks.

She opened her eyes to look up and saw the red threads coming together in the air above her. First all the red threads combined themself into an unrecognizable shape, then the black threads surrounded it like a cocoon. Then the shape started to shange until Primera was sure she was looking at her own shape.

Then the black threads fell away to reveal the exact image of Primera, hovering and yawning like she had just woken up from a deep sleep.

After a moment of yawning, the fake Primera stopped and looked down with an innocent curious expression.

Then she smiled an evil smile and flew faster than Primera ever could have to stop just inches from Primera's face.

"Thank you for my life." She said still with that evil smile on her perfect lips. "Empress Debonair would be pleased."

The smile vanished.

"Now go on and die, I have work to do."

The smile returned to the fake Primera's face, but this time it looked sickly sweet.

With a wink, the fake Primera took off in the direction that Hikaru had gone.

Primera tried to whisper no, but it hurt to much to say.

'Lantis, I'm so sorry.' She thought to herself as her vision started to blur. ' I failed you Lantis and I'm sorry, but I still want to be held by you. Is that selfish of me? Well, I don't care! I don't want to die alone! LANTIS!'

Then her mind went dark altogether.

'LANTIS!'

Lantis paused in the middle of his sentence and looked toward the cave mouth.

He was sure he'd heard Primera call his name just now.

He didn't hear it again and thinking about the time, the girls shouldn't be back yet for another hour., hour and a half.

Eagle said something to him and pulled him back into the conversation, though his mind was on alert and only half on the conversation.

"Primera! Where've you been?" Hikaru asked as she stood by the banks of the pond watching Primera fly up to her from the path Hikaru had just stepped away from.

"I'm sorry!" Primera apologized breathlessly. "I saw something pretty and had to check it out! I hope you haven't waited long!"

Hikaru smiled.

"No, I just got here and only just now noticed you were gone. I'm sorry too." She replied.

"All is forgiven on both sides then!" Primera giggled, causing Hikaru to giggle as well. "So I see you've found the pond!"

"Yes, and it's beautiful!" Hikaru replied, turning to look at it.

It was a fairly big pond, with just a three or four feet of water around the edges before becoming deep enough to swim through in the middle.

"It's too dark and chilly to swim in, but go up and look into it! I'm sure there's fishes swimming around!" Primera exclaimed.

"Fish?" Hikaru asked, thinking about those creatures that Umi had served to them that night at the inn, though it was just the meat from them.

She was curious to see them alive, so she walked over to the edge, still clutching Eagle's cloak.

As she stared intently into the murky green water, Primera flew up behind her.

Hikaru was already accustomed to Primera being back there, so she paid her no mind.

Primera smiled that evil smile and pulled her elbows in at her waist, palms out and then made a violent pushing motion with them.

Cold biting wind came out of nowhere and before Hikaru even had time to say anything she was pushed violently into the pond.

She hit the sandy murky bottom of the shallow water with her arms flung out. Eagle's cloak slipped away from her, but she didn't care. She used her arms to turn herself around and tried to stand up, but just as she was about to break the surface, she hit a barrier. It was like the surface of the pond had become ice that Hikaru could not break by strength alone.

Hikaru pounded her fist on it twice, staring through the murkiness at the fuzzy image of Primera who hovered just above her.

"PRIMERA!" Hikaru tried to shout, but mostly just bubbles issued from her mouth and she lost a good amount of precious air.

The fire within her tried to burn, to warm her up and make her dry, but the water surrounded her like a blanket, smothering her and becoming so cold that Hikaru was loosing all feeling in her body.

She peered up through the barrier at Primera, not with betrayl in her eyes, but with worry. It never occured to her that she might have been betrayed. She didn't even know what the word meant.

Her struggling slowly stopped as her fire slowly died. The last of the bubbles came forth from her mouth, as her hair spread out around her head in a megenta fan.

'Lantis...' Her mind whispered as it slowly died.

Her arms went limp and floated out from her sides.

Her eyes slowly grew dim and Primera's image slowly faded.

The fake Primera hovered above the surface of the water, smiling her evil smile, when suddenly she heard a noise coming from the other side of the pond.

Someone was coming!

The fake Primera looked down at Hikaru one last time and was pretty sure the Fire Child was no more. Not even fire can survive when surrounded by that much water.

The fake Primera flew off to tell the Empress the news and dissapeared into the trees just as the stranger came to the edge of the pond on the other side.

He was tall and young, a teenager himself, with short brown hair and dark brown eyes.

He was dress in a white shirt, with long red pants tied at the waist with a red sash. It kind of looked like a white and red dress with a sash in the middle.

The sandles on his socked feet made no sound as he softly tread his way to the pond.

Something caught his attention. It was a dark flat shape floating on the water's surface on the other side of the pond.

He quickly walked around to the other side and knealt down to get a better look.

It was a black cloak floating on the water.

The boy reached out and had no trouble dipping his hand into the water to grab a fistfull of the cloak and pull it from the water.

What he saw underneath was both beautiful and horrifying.

He saw a young teenage girl with nothing on, her megenta hair spread out around her head and shoulders, and her skin a light blue floating just under the surface of the water.

He thought she should be floating on the surface like the cloak was, but something seemed to be holding her down.

He flung the cloak aside and reached into the water for her wrist.

He had no trouble doing this as well and was able to pull her up through the surface and onto solid ground.

She was limp and not a breath was left in her.

"MASARU!" The boy called out frantically, to be answered by another voice from still inside the trees.

"What is it Kakeru?"

"HELP ME!" Kakeru replied before taking a large breath, pinched the girl's nose, put his mouth to hers and blew.

'Lantis...'

"Lantis, what are you doing?" Master Mage Clef asked as Lantis leapt to his feet.

Lantis's sudden movements had startled everybody, but he paid them no heed.

He was sure he'd heard Hikaru's voice this time calling his name and he was determined not to ignore it.

"Come!" He commanded them all as he summoned his horse.

The others had come to the conclusion that their questions were not going to be answered, so they followed without complaint. Ferio and Ascot helped Eagle to his feet as Umi and Fuu helped Clef.

They followed Lantis outside where he was already astride his horse. When he saw them he started at a gallop along the trail Primera and Hikaru had taken earlier, hoping against hope that it was not too late.


	14. Chapter 14

Fire Child

By Ladyprin

Disclaimer applies.

Many thanks to Seirin, midnight blue08, M.T.H., karu-14, James Birdsong, VanFanel, Fallen Angel Dark Mousy, & imonz! Also, thanks to all those that faved, but never commented!

And a special thank you shout out to Lover11Anime! I'm so glad that you told me that you thought Katy Perry's "Who Am I Living For?" was a great match with this story. I hadn't heard the song before, but when I listened to it after reading your review, I totally agree! It inspired me to start writing again and I am so happy! I forgot how much I love writing!

I do apologize to everyone if this story seems a little off from what I've written before, I haven't written anything in almost a year, if not more and I'm just getting back into it. I'm having to rethink where I wanted this story to go and where it actually is going and how to tie up all the little loose ends and I'm finding it much harder to do than ever. Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things soon. Thank you for staying with me for so long!

Chapter 14

Her footsteps echoed throughout the room even though they never made contact with the marble stones that used to be the floor.

Blackness that was darker than night, but the consistency of the finest silk now made up the ground upon which she walked and with each step it swirled around her feet and the hem of her coal black dress.

Her skin was the palest of grays; her eyes the palest of blues. Upon her head she wore a heavy gold headdress that was embellished with many dark red and purple gems that glinted like spider eyes in the darkness. It held back her mass of silver hair which was put up in two swirled buns that, on anybody else, would've looked elengant. On her though, it just made her look bigger and more intimidating.

Her cat like eyes closed till they were only slits as she looked at her two prisoners who hung on the rooms walls like trophy's. They were held against the walls by the darkness that surrounded them, which also acted to keep their own magic restrained and useless.

They knew when she had walked in, but both did their best to only look at each other, not at her.

The lady's long gold hair was tangled and wild looking. Her white dress that used to be flowy and billowy now hung limply off her in tatters. All that was left of her headpiece was a couple strands of gold chain and a couple broken jewels caught in her hair like bugs in a spiders web. She had cuts and bruises everywhere on her, and she was nothing but skin and bones for she had not eaten in days. Not that Empress Debonair hadn't offered her anything, but Princess Emeraude had declined every offer made.

Her sad blue eyes stared straight into the dark eyes of the man who hung before her on the opposite wall.

Lord Zagato's gray armor was cracked and broken. Some pieces were even missing completely. His headdress was completely gone and where it had been, showed a long bloody gash that ran from his hairline down the right side of his face to end at the jaw line. His blue clothes were also in tatters. As was his cape that was half gone and barely hung off his left shoulder. Had there been any breeze within this dark place of evil, he'd have already lost it too. Like Princess Emeraude, he too was skin and bones. He had other wounds aside from the gash on his head and all were a bit more severe than Princess Emeraude's wounds, but Empress Debonair hadn't allowed either to die just yet.

No, she had other plans for them.

Empress Debonair knew they held each others gaze in an attempt to ignore her, but she was fine with that. Soon they wouldn't be able to look away, not with what she was about to show them.

She smirked as she made her way to the back of the room where a fountain once stood. Now, all that was there was a pond of dark liquid, which might have once been water and then again, might not have.

As she passed between her prisoners she remarked, "I know that once upon a time when you stayed here Zagato, this place must've been... How would your people put it? Beautiful, I think is the word. But I much prefer it this way. It suits me much better than the caverns under Cephiro ever did and from this floating mountain I see all the land that is and soon will be mine."

She laughed slightly as she stopped in front of the pond and then she was silent as she used her dark magic to make the liquid rise up and form a large square mirror in front of her.

It was large enough that Princess Emeraude and Lord Zagato could see the whole thing from where they hung, and Empress Debonair was not ignorant of their brief glances at it when it was first formed.

"Show me the Fire Child." Empress Debonair whispered, but in the silence of the darkness she was heard clearly by her prisoners.

Princess Emeraude inhaled sharply and looked quickly back the mirror. Lord Zagato was a little slower, but he too turned his head to look.

The mirror formed an image quickly. It was of trees and a pond. A pond which was much larger than the one in this room was.

Moving like from the eyes of a bird, the image moved to where they could see inside the pond. A black cloak floated there, keeping something else hidden from view.

Empress Debonair knew what lay under the cloak, but she enjoyed making Princess Emeraude and Lord Zagato wait to have their worst suspicions confirmed.

Then suddenly a hand came into view and grabbed a fist full of the cloak and pulled it from the water.

The breath that Princess Emeraude inhaled this time was bigger and more strained than the first. Even Lord Zagato inhaled sharply.

They could only watch silently as the unknown person pulled the Fire Child from the water by the wrist and laid her out upon the ground.

The image grew to include the boy as he seemed to yell out to someone else. The mirror only showed images, it didn't include sound.

Another brown haired boy came into the image. Dressed in the same long red pants, red sash and white shirt as the first boy, he took in the situation with worry and confusion. He said something to the first boy who was trying to breathe life back into the Fire Child.

Empress Debonair started to smirk even bigger as their attempts proved futile, but then the smirk was gone from her lips in a heartbeat as the Fire Child drew in one deep strained breath and then started coughing up water.

"What?" She exclaimed in angry disbelief as the two behind her exhaled in relief.

The boys had the Fire Child on her side so she could cough up the water more easily, as they talked to each other hurriedly.

Then, nodding to each other, the first boy wrapped the Fire Child back up in the same cloak he had pulled from the pond. Then he picked her up and with both of them looking around with weariness and suspicion they rounded the pond and disappeared among the trees.

Empress Debonair cursed under her breath, then after a moment fell silent.

Princess Emeraude and Lord Zagato held still, not even daring to breathe as they silently watched her.

"Very well." Empress Debonair finally stated in a calm tone of voice. "Even though I had such high hopes, I should've known it wouldn't be that simple."

She waved her hand at the mirror and the image grew fuzzy and distorted, like it was moving so fast. Then it cleared and sharpened to show a blue haired pixie hovering just below the branches of some trees.

Princess Emeraude and Lord Zagato looked at each other in confusion. Princess Emeraude mouthed 'Primera?' and all Lord Zagato could do was shrug, painful as that motion was.

The pixie bowed low. Apparently the mirror worked both ways now.

"You're mission is not quite done." Empress Debonair told her through the mirror. "The Fire Child still lives, though only barely. Go back to the pond and follow their trail. Keep hidden and get as close to the child as you can. I will contact you shortly."

Without saying a word the pixie bowed again, anger showing in her eyes.

Then she flew out of the image and away through the trees.

Lantis spurred his black horse onward down the trail and though they'd only been running for a few minutes it felt like a lifetime to him.

The others had quickly tired of trying to keep up with him so he had paused long enough to let Ascot summon his bird friend so they could ride in his hands and keep up with him, but that had been the only time they'd stopped.

Lantis was furious at himself and for many reasons, but the foremost in his mind was that he had let Hikaru out of his sight with only Primera to guard her. Primera was strong among her race and when teamed up with Lantis' power they were mighty, but by herself Primera really couldn't stand her own against the evil that threatened their every move.

He had been too intent on using the alone time letting them go to the pond would give him and Master Clef. Then the others had arrived and in all the bustle of everyone's introductions, reunions and updating everyone on everyone else's situations he had lost track of the fact that outside of his sight Hikaru was in danger.

Evil never paused in what it was doing so friends could catch up with each other.

Lantis silently cursed to himself.

Master Clef was right! Lantis had been sent here by the Princess to keep him out of the Fire Child's path, but somehow Cephiro had seen fit to throw him in her path anyway.

He had a chance to prove the prophecy wrong. A chance to protect her while the others regrouped and met up with them, but instead in one moment of wanting alone time to be updated by Master Clef he had made a mistake that might have cost Cephiro it's only hope and even worse to him, it might have cost Hikaru her life.

Something glinted up ahead on the path, cutting through his troubled thoughts and he slowed his horse to a trot. Then he stopped the horse fully and dismounted.

With a hand on the handle of his sword he crept forward to investigate.

The others finally caught up to him, but they stopped back by his horse. As they intently watched him they started getting ready for battle.

Fuu strung an arrow through her bow as Windom warmed up his wings. Umi held out her sword as Selece wrapped himself around her hand and handle and got ready to release the water. Ferio warmed up his sword hand. Eagle readied his gun. Ascot made sure his glove was on tight and looked up to confirm his bird friend was ready. Master Clef just stared ahead of them.

After a moment of silently walking toward the faint glinting of light, Lantis knew in a flash what he was seeing.

"Primera!" He shouted and bounded forward to kneel beside her.

The glint had been her wings as the light wind fluttered them. She looked like a bloody limp mess and Lantis was so afraid to touch her.

He stared horrified at her as his hands hovered just above her.

The others gathered around him cautiously, everyone was looking around them except for Fuu. She was staring at Primera in horror as well, but then a gentle expression came over her face.

She knelt down beside Lantis, laid down her bow and arrow beside her and gently moved his hands away from Primera.

She placed her own hands where his had been and softly started chanting.

"Winds of healing, I call to thee, help heal this pixie, heal her for me."

Windom gently flew around Fuu and circled just above Fuu hands. Wind started to surround the little pixie girl and gently picked her up from the ground.

Ferio silently walked up behind Lantis and gently laid a hand on his shoulder. When Lantis glanced in his direction Ferio motioned with his head to stand back.

Lantis was hesitant in his movements, but he did as Ferio silently suggested. His eyes never again leaving Primera.

As they backed away, Fuu stood up swiftly and kept her hands outstretched and level with her chest. The wind moved Primera up to keep her the same distance away from Fuu's hands as she started out being.

The wind surrounding her picked up speed and took on a light green color again. Her blue hair waved about her as the wind sought out her wounds and healed them all.

It was all over in seconds and as the wind started to dissipate, Fuu started to turn around and Windom gently beat his wings in motion with her.

Lantis slowly held his hands out, palms up as Fuu's healing winds laid her gently in them.

"Primera." Lantis softly whispered to her.

She lightly stirred, moaning.

Ferio came to stand beside Fuu and they smiled at each other.

As Primera started to open her eyes, Fuu softly whispered to Ferio with a smile, "She was easier to heal than you were."

"Because she was smaller?" Ferio asked in the same quiet voice.

"Yes." Fuu answered.

"Primera, wake up, please!" Lantis softly called to her as her eyes fully opened.

"Lantis..." Primera muttered tiredly. "Lantis... so sorry... I... was distracted... trap..."

Then Primera's eyes opened wide and she found the strength to push herself up and turn to look down the path.

"Hikaru?" She cried looking around frantically.

"Hikaru!" She cried again and reached out in the direction of the pond before she collapsed in Lantis's hands.

She was healed, but her strength wasn't restored yet.

That was enough for her friends though.

Lantis nodded his thanks to Fuu as he held Primera gently, but firmly against his chest and mounted his horse again.

The others climbed back up in the hands of Ascot's friend and they were off faster than ever before.

"How's she doing brother?" Kakeru asked as he and his brother Masaru stood in the doorway to their older brother's bedroom.

The girl they had rescued from the pond lay upon their older brother's bed. They had managed to get her breathing and had gotten her dry, but she still hadn't wakened.

"She's still hot to the touch and I think she's slowly getting hotter." Satoru replied worriedly after a moment.

He ran his hands through his long dark brown bangs and sighed.

"I still don't understand how she could've had a fever that high that soon after we pulled her from the water." Masaru stated with confusion.

"Use your head, Masaru." Kakeru replied. "She probably had the fever before she fell into the pond. It rained really hard last night and if she was out in it that would explain the fever, and the fever would explain why she was too weak to get herself out of the pond."

"Oh." Masaru said softly.

"I agree with Kakeru's theory." Satoru stated. "It's the only thing that makes since, although what was she doing out in that bad of a rainstorm? I fear she might have been running from the darkness, but if that's the case then the darkness is finally about to reach us."

"If we go around the dojo's perimeter and reinforce the spells, how much longer do you think we could hold out?" Kakeru asked.

Satoru stared at the girl for a little while longer and then turned to look at his brothers.

"I honestly don't know." He replied seriously. "We'd last at least a day, maybe two. The spells that Lantis help us put up should last at least that long since he is the third most powerful man in Cephiro. That's only if we don't come up against the full power of the Empress's darkness. If that happens..."

He shrugged.

"And as to reinforcing the spells," He continued. "I don't think it's safe to go out looking for Lantis to help us do that. Best to stay behind our defenses and pray for the best."

"Hmm." Kakeru and Masaru nodded in agreement, before all three looked back at the girl.

"She's pretty." Masaru stated.

Kakeru and Satoru nodded.

"She seems to be about you and your brother's age." Satoru observed with a small smile.

"I didn't mean it like that!" Masaru immediately protested, blushing.

Kakeru looked between his smirking brother and his blushing brother in confusion. Then he glanced back the girl and his eyes went wide in sudden understanding and he too began to blush.

Satoru let loose a laugh, but the laugh was cut short as a dog started barking just outside the building.

"Hikari senses something." Satoru stated as he stood up. "Get your swords, I'll meet you outside."

Both of his brothers nodded and fled the doorway.

Satoru looked down at the sleeping girl and softly muttered to her.

"Whatever you were running from, we'll try to protect you as long as we can. I promise little one."

Then he too ran from the room.

"Find anything?" Master Clef asked as Ferio and Lantis came back around the pond.

They had reached the pond, but Hikaru wasn't there. Ferio and Lantis were among the best trackers in Cephiro and they had immediately started searching the ground for clues.

Ferio and Lantis came to stop just beside where the group had come out of the woods.

"I don't see signs of a struggle." Ferio stated looking at Lantis for confirmation.

Lantis nodded.

"But there are foot prints leading to the pond from the other side of the woods." Lantis continued for Ferio. "There are two sets of them and they come to where we are and then it's like someone was laying upon the grass here."

He knelt down to the pat the grass by his feet.

"And then the same two sets of foot prints lead away from the pond, back the way they came." Ferio finished. "Although, one set seems heavier than the other now."

"Two sets of foot prints..." Lantis mused.

Then his eyes flashed to the tree line.

"I think I know who the foot prints belong to and I pray to Cephiro I'm right." Lantis stated before mounting his horse once more.

"Did you find anything?" Satoru asked as he joined his brothers on the front lawn of the dojo.

"I checked both sides." Masaru was the first to reply. "All the spells are still in place. I found nothing."

Kakeru was holding onto Hikari's collar as he replied.

"I checked the back, same as what Masaru said. I found nothing, but Hikari is still going crazy."

Satoru studied Hikari for a moment and noted that Hikari was straining her collar a bit and whipping her head to stare in every direction. Which helped them none at all.

"I sense a darkness nearby, which I'm sure you both have sensed too." Satoru began to say as the others nodded in confirmation, when movement in the tree line caught his eye.

Satoru quickly brought his sword up in a defensive position. His brothers did the same, but in doing so Kakeru had to let go of Hikari.

Once free she raced around the side of the house and disappeared from their view.

Kakeru only gave her a quick thought and then concentrated fully on the movement among the trees.

Soon several figures emerged, but only one did they recognize.

"Lantis." Satoru called out, though he did not lower his sword.

"Satoru, greetings." Lantis replied as he and his friends came to stop just short of the spell barrier he had helped the brothers put up weeks ago. "I hope you and your brothers are well, but we don't have much time for pleasantries. I must ask of you and your brothers, have you by any chance at all seen a young girl around? She looks no older than your brothers and has long magenta colored hair."

Satoru couldn't help but notice the worry that saturated every word that Lantis said and the hurry with which he said the words. That was so unlike the Lantis he knew, so calm and collected.

Kakeru and Masaru glanced at each other, but they let Satoru do the speaking.

"My brothers rescued a girl fitting that description mere hour or two ago." He confirmed.

The group in front of him let out many sighs of relief almost as one. Even the giant bird creature gave his equivalent of one.

Satoru couldn't help the twitch of an almost smile that touched his lips.

"How is she?" The girl with the long blue hair asked.

Satoru hesitated a moment before answering which put the whole group back on edge and in that moment of hesitation, he realized he had a choice to make.

A few weeks ago he and his brothers had crossed paths with the young man named Lantis.

Through the first couple weeks they had let him stay at the dojo, though they knew nothing about him and in this day and age they knew full well they were risking their lives. It turned out though, that once a friendship was forged with this man, that friendship stayed strong.

Lantis opened up little by little over the rest of the weeks and thus they had learned that he was the young brother of Lord Zagato, High Priest to the Princess of Cephiro.

He shared what news he had of the rest of Cephiro, how much of it had fallen into Empress Debonair's powerful darkness. That was when they realized why they hadn't seen much of their friends over the past few months.

When they learned that Lantis was a very powerful student of Master Mage Clef, they asked for his help in protecting their home. Thus he helped put many protection spells around the dojo.

Every now and then Lantis would leave the dojo, sometimes for days on end, but Satoru and his brothers never asked where he went and he never volunteered the information.

Now with the darkness almost upon them, it was time for Satoru to choose. Will he trust Lantis, and thus Lantis's friends, with the lives of him and his brothers or would it be safer to just have Lantis and his group leave?

Lantis watched Satoru for a second and could tell from the look in his eyes what he struggled with. Lantis held up a hand to silence the others from asking more questions until Satoru made his decision and it was then that Satoru knew.

However much he didn't know about this man, he knew enough to know a strong friendship had been built, and Satoru was not going to be the one to break it.

He lowered his sword and answered the blue haired girl's question.

"We got her breathing again, but it feels like she's running a high fever that grows by the minutes. She hasn't awakened since we found her, but so far she seems to be sleeping well."

The group let out another round of sighs.

Then the gray haired man spoke up.

"She's always running a high temperature. That's just how she is."

A few of his companions chuckled.

"Can-" Lantis was cut off by the barking of a mad dog trying to attack something.

At the same time the brothers turned in union to look at their home.

They all had sensed the evil break the barrier and in that same moment Lantis sensed it too.

"The child!" Satoru cried as he and his brothers started to run toward the house with Lantis and the others following swiftly behind.

Empress Debonair had an image once more in the mirror.

It showed the blue haired pixie hovering just behind tree leaves, high enough off the ground to be able to survey the house and land she had tracked the Fire Child to.

Empress Debonair and the pixie watched as a big brown and cream dog patrolled the grounds, stopping every now and then at one particular window to sniff the air around it.

"I think the Fire Child is in that room." The pixie muttered to Empress Debonair.

"I agree." Empress Debonair replied and then fell silent; thinking.

Even through the mirror she could sense the strong spells of protection that had been cast around the grounds. She knew they came from Lord Zagato's younger brother, knew that man named Lantis had studied under Master Clef alongside his brother and Alcione.

She also knew that she could break these barrier spells as easily as breaking a spiders web, but what it came down to was this.

She had immense power and was constantly gathering more. The more of Cephiro her darkness covered the more creatures and beings gave their power and souls to her, however unwillingly, and thus made her stronger. If the prophecy was to be believed, though, and there was no reason not to believe it yet, she wasn't powerful enough to face the Fire Child head on.

Ever since she started her rise to power she had always taken into account the tales, myths, legends and history of all the villains who came before her, in this world and in others. Though none of them ever equaled her in power and strength, they all had one weakness. One flaw that always led to their downfalls, that she was determined never to have.

They always believed they could never be beaten. That they were immortals.

That belief had risen them high toward their goal of ultimate power, but they believed it so completely that they were all blind to any serious threats.

Empress Debonair always swore to herself that she would be different.

When she first heard about the prophecy she considered herself fortunate. Not every villain got their own guide maps to power. She considered herself above the rest, considered herself, unique, in the fact that she took the threat to her power seriously.

If she couldn't take this threat head on yet, then she'd have to try a different approach.

Which suited her just fine...

She smiled evilly and then stuck her hand through the mirror.

The pixie watched in fascination as Empress Debonair's six inch long purple and razor sharp nails wrapped around her.

Then she inhaled sharply as Empress Debonair fed but a small fraction of her darkness straight into her little body.

"This will allow you to break through a small section of the barrier." She informed the pixie as she retracted her hand through the mirror. "Get into that room and I will guide you from there."

The pixie looking creature nodded, then flew silently from view as the dog from below sounded an alarm.

"If I can't kill her in a physical sense, then so be it." She talked mainly for the benefit of Princess Emeraude and Lord Zagato who still watched her silently from their walls. "I shall go for something much more personal."

She raised her right hand in front of her and closed it like she was grasping onto something unseen.

"Fire Child," She whispered. "I'm coming for your soul."


	15. Chapter 15

FireChild

by LadyPrin

Disclaimer Applies.

Thanks to Seirin, midnight blue08, James Birdsong, Lover's Red Rose, Fallen Angel Dark Mousy (in answer to your question, the next chapter will explain whether they are or not, will be or not. Saying so now would be a spoiler.), (hehe, Rayearth shows up in this chapter, I didn't care for the tragic end of Zagato and Emeraude in the manga, so rest assured, I don't plan on that happening here. As to Hikaru and Lantis, well... to say what I have planned for those two would be a spoiler, wouldn't it? *winks*) and Lolita-mist (oh yes, I much agree! So many hotties in CLAMP's world, we can't chose just one! Lol!).

And thank you to all those who faved and ran!

Please enjoy.

Chapter 15

Empress Debonair's evil pixie crouched low on the inside sill of the half open window.

She half glanced over her shoulder and growled softly at the dog that was incessantly barking and growling underneath the window at her. She had almost lost her wings and a couple limbs to that cursed animal, but she had made it inside and the window was too high up for the dog to jump through. It was also not opened enough even if it had been low enough.

She smirked as she quickly surveyed the room, silently mocking the fools who felt secure enough behind those pathetic protection spells to open a window.

She ignored the sparse furnitings of the room. Her eyes quickly found the bed and focused upon the still figure flying upon it.

Baring her sharp tiny point teeth in an evil smile she flew over to land upon the Fire Child's slowly rising chest.

Just as she landed she heard multiple footsteps upon the wooden floor of the hall just outside the room.

Her head whipped around to snarl and bare her teeth at Satoru who was framed in the doorway.

Empress Debonair whispered instructions within the pixie's mind and the pixie smiled.

"Get away from her!" Satoru yelled as he lunged forward into the room, the others quickly following him in.

He was too late.

In the time it took him to cross the room, the pixie sprung to Hikaru's lip, easily pried them open, turned into a swirling black smoky mass, quickly slipped through Hikaru's parted lips and was gone.

Everyone's voices, minus the brother's, blended in a mingled cry of Hikaru's name.

Fuu was the first to take charge.

"Everyone, please stand back." She said hurriedly, waving with her arms toward the wall that had the door they had entered through.

"You're healing winds?" Ferio asked quickly as everyone did as she bid.

"Yes. Since it's now inside her body, probably wrecking havoc, it stands to reason I can heal it out of her." Fuu explained hurriedly as she readied herself with her hands hovering just above Hikaru's chest. "I'm gonna' try anyway."

Windom preceeded to fly in small tight circles above the bed.

"Winds of healing," Fuu began as wind started coming in through the still half open window and started to swirl around the bed. "I call to thee- EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The chant was broken by her scream as dark energy struck out from Hikaru's body. It struck Fuu while she spoke and she screamed as it threw her across the room to land half in Ferio's arms and half in Eagle's who gasped out in surprise as their backs hit the wall behind them with the force.

It also lashed out at Windom who screeched, but was able to avoid the majority of the energy as he dived, spun and whirled to fly back to the group at the door.

As the space around Hikaru's bed cleared the dark energy subsided and disappeared back into her.

"Well, that didn't work." Fuu gasped out as Ferio and Eagle sat her back on her feet.

"Are you alright?" Ferio asked worriedly.

Fuu nodded a yes and looked back at Hikaru, though she grimaced in pain as she held an arm to her ribs tightly.

Ferio was not conviced, but he let it go for the time being.

"Master Clef, have you regained enough magic to fight this?" Lantis asked, turning to his teacher for help, a plea within his eyes.

Master Clef stared at Hikaru for a moment, an unreadble expression in his eyes.

His expression told of an inner battle waging.

Finally, he closed his eyes, wincing, hung his head and shook it in a no answer.

Lantis turned back to look at Hikaru with a pained exspression, running his hand through his black hair in frustration and worry.

Everyone was silent for a moment more, looking on in painful worry.

Then one of them came to an abrupt decision.

Lantis let out a quick breath, lowered his hand and started forward.

"Lan-!" Clef started, then stopped himself.

Lantis stopped long enough to turn at the waist to look back at Clef.

A silent comunication passed between them then, not one of magic, but one of knowing the other well enough to understand his expression.

Clef wanted to remind Lantis of the prophecy and that he was destined to destroy the Fire Child if he did not stay away from her.

Lantis remembered well, but figured that if he did indeed destroy her now, it would be preferred to what the darkness might do to her, and he was the only one left in the group with magic that might work against this.

Clef could not argue with that, so he looked away.

Lantis turned and started slowly back toward Hikaru, wary of the black energy.

It didn't lash out again, so he came to stand right beside her bed.

He took a couple seconds to watch her face. She looked normal, at peace even. He was sure it wouldn't last if he waited much longer.

He put his fears aside and placed one hand on her forehead and the other over her heart as he whispered a quick silent prayer to Cephiro for strength.

Hikaru was a little scared.

Darkness surrounded her, blacker than night and thick. She couldn't tell if this was Empress Debonair's evil darkness or something else.

It could be the darkness of sleep, but her sleep was almost never this dark and dreams usually started within seconds.

She'd been here in this darkness for what felt like forever. She had no clothes on, but she usually didn't when her inner fire flared so she wasn't concerned.

She'd called out, but nobody had answered her. She'd tried walking, but heard no sound from her feet although she felt a solid surface below her. She never came into contact with walls, or trees or anything solid other than the floor no matter how long she walked.

She was getting tired, but her fear kept her walking. Her eyes darting every which way to make sure no creatures came out of the darkness at her.

Suddenly she tripped over something unseen and fell onto her stomache with an "umf!"

She scrambled to her knees and swiveled on them to try to see what she had tripped over.

Her hands flew to her mouth to cover a silent scream as her eyes grew wide to express her growing fear and shock.

Before her, sprawled out on her back was Umi. Hikaru had tripped over her side. Her blue hair was tangled and half covered her face which was tilted to the side, facing Hikaru. Her eyes were lifeless, her skin was pale, her mouth was slightly open and blood dripped from her mouth. Her arms were flung out to her sides and one leg was straight out while the other was crooked off to the side.

After a moment Hikaru lowered her hands and whispered, "Umi?"

No response.

Hikaru didn't have the strength to stand, but she found the strength to crawl over.

She reached out a hand and hesitantly brushed Umi's cheek with two fingertips. She quickly jerked her hand back, shocked anew by how cold Umi was.

"Umi?" She asked again, her voice a little higher, quivering slightly.

Suddenly, Umi started to sink into the black floor.

Hikaru was torn between not wanting to believe that that was really Umi and wanting to reach out, grab her by the arm and try to pull her back out.

Before she could make her body move, Umi was gone.

Hikaru was alone again and more scared than ever.

She started to back up on her knees. Her only thought was to back as far away from that spot as she could.

Her bare feet bumped against something and she jerked them back and froze.

Afraid to turn around, but knowing she had to, she slowly turned her head, inch by inch to look over her shoulder.

The first thing she saw was the lady she barely remembered from her first couple days of being. The one Lantis had called Princess Emeraude. She was reclined against a man who lay mostly beneath her. Her golden hair was long enough for her to be sitting on it. Her clothes were in tatters. She had bruises and cuts all over her body. Her head was tilted to the side, away from Hikaru, looking to the man's face.

The man had black hair and though it wasn't as long as the Princess' it was long enough to join with Emeraude's. Physically and clotheswise he was in the same condition as the Princess, but his head was tilted towards Hikaru.

His eyes were just as lifeless as Umi's had been and Hikaru had a sick feeling that Emeraude's would be the same.

"No, no!" Hikaru cried as she scrambled to her feet and lunged to her left.

She started running, tears swelling in the corners of her eyes.

She wiped her tears from her eyes and came to an abrupt stop, just in time to avoid falling over someone else.

This time, it was Ferio.

Hikaru shook her head, her mouth opening and closing, but no sounds came out.

Then from the corner of her eye she saw a flash of color.

She turned her head to look and saw Eagle.

A flash to her right.

Ascot!

Another flash.

Clef!

Flash!

"Lantis!" Hikaru cried out.

This time, Lantis was not like the others, cold and unmoving. He was just like he was when she had last seen him. He was standing amid the others, head bowed, holding something in his hands.

"Lantis!" She called out again, taking a step toward him, needing him to acknowledge her, to help her!

He knelt down and laid what he was holding so delicately on the ground and Hikeru could see what it was.

Primera! Crumpled, bloody, wings torn and eyes lifeless.

"NO!" Hikeru screamed, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Lantis finally raised his head and looked at her.

There was anger in his eyes. Anger and... accusation? Hikeru couldn't help but get the feeling he blamed her for Primera.

She couldn't understand why.

He then looked around at the bodies around him and his face twisted in anguish.

He looked back at her, still not saying a word.

"I didn't do this!" Hikaru cried out, desperate for him to understand.

Yet, still he said nothing though he advanced toward her.

She slowly back away, whispering his name to no avail.

Suddenly a sword was in his hand and he lunged at her.

She twirled to her left and avoided it by inches.

"Lantis, stop! Please stop!" She screamed as she started running again.

She still couldn't hear her own footsteps, but for some reason she could hear his.

Pounding after her and getting closer by the second.

Then the footsteps were gone.

Hikaru spun around and stared in horror.

Lantis was bent half over, clutching at his heart, blood pouring from between his fingers.

He still looked at her with that anger in his eyes. With the accusation in his eyes.

She ignored the sword still in his other hand and ran toward him, her only thought was to help him.

"Lantis!" She cried once more as she neared him.

In a last ditch attempt, Lantis swung out at her with the sword.

She was close enough it would've hit and she expected it to.

She halted and shut her eyes tightly waiting for the pain and then her eyes shot open as she heard the clang of metal on metal mere inches from her face.

His sword had met with a metal staff that had come between them, blocking it from striking her.

Then the last of his strength failed him and he crumpled to the floor.

"No!" Hikaru screamed and she tried to rush to him as the darkness started to swallow him like it did Umi, but the staff lowered itself to press against her chset and block her.

"No, don't." A female voice spoke to her.

Her head whipped around, for this was the first voice aside from her own she had heard in this forsaken place.

"If you go to him, the darkness will suck you down too." The woman explained, staring as the last sight of Lantis disappeared.

Then she looked over at Hikaru.

"Who are you?" Hikeru asked, her voice quivering.

"My name is Alcione." The woman replied, standing her staff upright and leaning into it. "I work for Princess Emeraude and Master Mage Clef."

"They are-!" Hikaru tried to say, but her voice choked on her.

She gestured helplessly back toward where Lantis had chased her from, though now she couldn't see the bodies, just blackness. The dark had probably swallowed them too.

Alcione didn't even look in that direction.

"I know." She said softly, watching Hikaru's face. "My job now is to see you safely out of here. I was a student of Master Mage Clef and though it can't fight against the dark, it's enough to see you safely away from all this darkness of the Empress'." 

She stretched out her hand to Hikaru.

"Come." She said softly.

Hikaru was hesitant.

"I know you've seen things you never should have and it will take a long time to come to grips with it, but we can't linger here while you do it." Alcione spoke again, just as softly, but with a hint of impatience. "We must leave, now."

Hikaru wanted that so much right now.

She reached out her hand, but something stopped her.

A voice, softer than a whisper, but in the silence of the darkness as loud as a shout.

"Fire Child, don't! It's a trap!" The female voice said. "RUN!"

Empress Debonair stared into the mirror, reaching out her hand infront of her, making the image of Alcione reach out her hand to the Fire Child.

She whispered, "Come." making Alcione say it to.

Then Princess Emeraude broke Debonair's concentration by screaming at the top of her lungs and using the last of her power to make her words reach the Fire Child.

"FIRE CHILD, DON'T! IT'S A TRAP! RUN!"

Debonair swung her out reached hand around to behind her, using her power to slap Princess Emeraude with dark energy.

She screamed again, this time in pain and hung limply from her wall, barely breathing, eyes half closed, and blood dribbling down the corner of her mouth.

As Lord Zagato cried out in rage, Debonair turned back to the mirror and back to buisness.

That voice rang familier bells in Hikaru's memory.

That was Princess Emeraude's voice, but she was... wasn't she?

Though her stare stayed on Hikaru's face, Alcione's outreached hand whipped back behind her and there was a muffled scream that came from somewhere around them.

Hikaru's feet took on a life of their own and she bolted away from Alcione.

"Come back here!" Alicone screamed in a voice totally different from what she had used before.

Hikaru didn't bother to respond, she just ran.

As she ran, she tried to call forth the fire within her, thinking she should have done that in the beginning!

But it was harder than usual to call it forth.

It was like something was trying to keep it smothered.

Lantis did his best not scream in pain as the dark energy reared up again as he pushed with his magic to try and drive it out of her.

It hurt so much, but he had to do this! He had to save her! Had to prove to himself that the prophecy was wrong!

He was so focused on the fight and everybody was so focused on him, nobody but Windom and Selece noticed the new addition to the group.

He was the same size as Umi's dragon, but he was in the shape of a wolf with red and white fire for fur and a long gold horn sprouted forth from his forehead.

He nodded to Selece and Windom in acknowledgment of his old friends, then Ra bounded forward toward Hikaru and Lantis.

He leapted up onto Lantis' hands.

Lantis started, but did not remove his hands.

"What the-?" Someone muttered, but Lantis only focused on the fire wolf.

"Follow the fire to her." The wolf spoke to him.

His eyes widened and then the wolf's fire blazed bright and Lantis had to shut his eyes.

In doing so, he saw fire swirling around him and then watched as it formed a tunnel away from him and he did not hesitate to follow.

Hikaru was almost ready to collapse from exhaustion.

Her heart was ready to burst with fear and grief.

Her fire would not come forth no matter how hard she tried.

"Hikaru!" A voice called out to her, but it wasn't Alcione's voice.

It took her a moment to place it and then- It couldn't be!

"LANTIS!" She screamed out, hoping against hope.

"Hikaru! I'm coming!" She heard Lantis reply, sounding closer than before.

"Like hell you are!" Alcione snarled from behind Hikaru, closer than she thought.

Abruptly light blazed ahead of Hikaru and she kept running toward it, but she also threw an arm over her face to shield her eyes as Alcione cried out in surprize.

Hikaru could make out the outline of Lantis as he ran toward her through the light and so she reached out her hand.

Sudden sharp pain erupted on both sides of Hikaru's body, making her scream out.

She struggled to pull herself out of the clutches of Alcione who's hands had suddenly sprouted six inch long and extremely sharp nails which now dug into Hikaru's sides trying to pull her back.

"Even if you escape me now, I will not let you destroy me." Alcione whispered to her. "I will destroy you first!"

Just as Hikaru's strength fled her a large hand wrapped around her outstretched hand.

"I've got you!" Lantis cried in triumph, holding her hand tightly and pulling back toward him.

With his touch not only came relief, but the light reached her as well and Hikaru realized it wasn't just light, it was fire.

The touch of that fire freed her own fire within her which flared bright and fast.

Alcione cried out in pain, but her nails dug in deeper.

Lantis reached out with his other hand and Hikaru grabbed hold of it.

With a final scream from all of them, Lantis successfully pulled Hikaru free and her fire flared back at Alcione who disappeared with one last snarl.

The fire searched out every little corner of the darkness inside her and snuffed it out like it was the candle flame as Lantis pulled Hikaru's soul back to where it belonged.

When they both opened their eyes the dark energy was gone. Ra was no longer blazing fiercely and was sitting at the foot of Hikaru's bed, watching her intently.

Hikaru looked around wildly as the others sighed in relief and cheered in happiness.

Then her eyes locked on Lantis' eyes as he stared worriedly at her.

She couldn't help herself.

She flung herself into his arms, crying and saying through her sobs, "I'm sorry!"

He whispered soothing words to her and held her gently, but for the next hour all Hikaru could do was sob and repeat, "I'm sorry." though no one knew what she had to be sorry for.

Her mirror no longer showed an image and Debonair almost shattered it in her frustration and anger.

She cursed until it was hard for her to breathe.

She knew without looking that Zagato and Emeraude were smiling to each other in triumph and she was just about ready to wipe those smiles from their faces. Permanantly.

Then suddenly she stopped talking as another sound was heard through the darkness.

Sniffling and sobbing.

Debonair slowly turned around, seeking the sound.

It was coming from the back of the room.

As Debonair walked between them, she heard Emeraude suck in her breath and she almost smiled.

Once she got close enough to see who was sniffling and sobbing she stopped in surprize.

Sitting there, naked, shivering, with her knees pulled up to her chest, was a young girl of about 14. Her hair was long, untamed, and the color of megenta albeit slightly lighter than the Fire Child's was.

Empress Debonair recongnized her and realized what happened.

She hadn't managed to rip the Fire Child's complete soul from her body and bring it here, but she had managed to rip a piece of her soul out and bring it here. How big or small a piece, was yet to be determined.

The child raised her head and looked at Debonair with tear dropped lashes. Her movement made her hair fall back from her ears to reveal that her ears were pointy at the tips.

"Where am I?" She asked through her sobs.

Debonair didn't reply, but she reached out a hand toward her.

The girl flinched and dark purple flames erupted around her.

Debonair pulled her hand back and smiled.

"My dear, you're in my home now and don't worry. I'll take good care of you. You're safe here." She told her softly, motherly, and added a silent thought to the end of that sentence.

'For now... Heheheh.'


End file.
